Oklahoma City Innovation District

PROJECT PURPOSE

Global pharmaceutical value chains have been radically disrupted, driven by three factors: (1) the emergence of complex-to-produce, next-gen medicines, (2) outsourcing across product development lifecycles, and (3) capacity shortages in core services like biomanufacturing, exacerbated by COVID-19 and foreign dependence. Additionally, the growing necessity of unifying R&D alongside services like manufacturing has uniquely advantaged low-cost, well-integrated ecosystems, making Oklahoma attractive for complex drug development and biomanufacturing. Biomanufacturing affords promise for diversifying and strengthening Oklahoma?s economy. Ambitious expansion from companies like Wheeler Bio, Cytovance Biologics, and Avara Pharmaceuticals is already anticipated to add 1,000+ jobs by 2026. Moreover, pipelines to elite drug discovers around the world could produce 2-5K more jobs by 2030. Our project will bolster this growth by establishing a workforce training center in Oklahoma City to meet growing skilled labor demand. The center will enable access to high-value, specialized equipment?often a barrier to training at scale?needed for trainees to gain competency in industry processes and technologies. Partnered with existing training infrastructure (CareerTech and Work Ready Oklahoma) and borrowing from nationally recognized blueprints like the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing, this project will reinvest in critical infrastructure needed to get unemployed and underemployed Oklahomans back to work.

EVIDENCE

Similar centers across the world have successfully and rapidly retrained workers for mid-skill and high-skill jobs. NCTM in Texas, BTEC in North Carolina, and the Testa Center in Sweden have served as models for our program. Through a public-private partnership with Oklahoma CareerTech and Wheeler Bio, we have already procured curriculum from NCTM. Under the Operation WARP Speed vaccine production response, NCTM produced more than 50 workers each month for jobs with FujiFilm, demonstrating that retraining can be accomplished quickly. However, given Oklahoma?s leadership in next-gen drug production, this model must be both replicated and customized for local industry needs.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

70-80% of biomanufacturing technician jobs earning $50,000-85,000/year don?t require degrees and are less exposed to future job loss. Reskilling vulnerable populations for these jobs will help offset economic impacts of COVID-19 for workers who are unemployed, underemployed, and in volatile industries and raise wages, lower incidence of future unemployment, and increase workforce diversity. Poverty rates north and east of the Innovation District are above 45%, median household incomes are below $25,000, and unemployment levels are 3x the Metro rate. At the population level, unemployment rates for black Oklahomans remain above state average and rose much more sharply during COVID-19. Rural workers have experienced a disproportionate increase in ?working poverty? as their industries of employment have been more sensitive to COVID-related closures. 28% of oil and gas workers lost jobs last year. This partnership and resulting programs will gain high-wage, stable employment.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

This project has two goals: establishment of the physical training facilities (ARP requested) and delivery of certificate education programs at these facilities (non-ARP requested). Thus, we can measure project performance through construction milestones, mapped alongside the timetable for the MAPS-supported Innovation Hall facility that will host this training center. We can also track program metrics, including ?leading indicators? (curriculum licensed/developed, new state certified credentials, YoY enrollment increases, etc.) and ?lagging indicators? (# receiving credentials, # terminating in employment, etc.). We will track this data through pre- and post-program surveys and will migrate data from educational partners into a shared CRM.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma