College offers biotechnology apprenticeships

The Wilson Community College biotechnology program is excited to announce a new biotechnology lab analyst apprenticeship program sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. We started our first apprenticeship program with GSK just this fall, and it’s going very well, so this second opportunity with the company is really exciting.

Participants in an apprenticeship program are hired by a company and take classes toward an associate degree in a related filed while working full time. The associate degree is fully funded by the company, which means no college debt!

Now, GSK is specifically looking for a laboratory analyst associate.  This position equips apprentices with the skills and knowledge to tackle a variety of scientific challenges working in manufacturing laboratories — the heartbeat of the company. This is a three to four-year program that offers on-the-job training while studying toward an Associate in Applied Science degree in biotechnology at Wilson Community College.

GSK is holding a virtual information session at noon this Wednesday, Oct. 13. If you want information on the opportunity, just visit our website to register for the meeting.

So, you might be asking yourself, “what is biotechnology, exactly?”  Basically, it’s a scientific field that studies biological processes and develops technologies and products to improve our lives. Think: vaccines.

Graduates of the biotechnology associate degree program can work as research assistants to biologists or chemists, laboratory technicians and instrumentation technicians or as a quality control or quality assurance technician.

If you are interested in learning more about the biotechnology program, contact biotechnology instructor Stephanie Winstead at 252-246-1207 or swinstead@wilsoncc.edu.  And for information about the apprenticeship program, contact Travis Flewelling, dean of industrial technologies, at tflewelling@wilsoncc.edu or 252-246-1210. At #WilsonCC, we make Wilson work.