Nashoba Tech's Biotechnology Program Receives State Approval

Nashoba Valley Technical High School’s biotechnology portion of the highly successful Engineering Academy is up and running.

“Biotech is a continuation of the growth and development of the Engineering Academy,” Superintendent Dr. Judith L. Klimkiewicz said. “It’s an additional component that has a very large job demand in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

According to www.biospace.com, employment in biotechnology — or specifically, biopharmaceutical technology — in 2014 experienced its highest annual growth rate since 2008, adding 5 percent more jobs and outpacing the national average. In 2014, there were 60,459 jobs in Massachusetts’ biopharmaceutical industry, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

And in the last 10 years, employment in the Massachusetts biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry has increased by 28 percent, while the country as a whole witnessed a 2 percent decrease over the same period.

The website also states that Massachusetts continues to lead the country in biotech R&D jobs. And the estimated average salary in the biopharmaceutical industry is about $120,000.

In addition to Biotechnology, Nashoba Tech’s Engineering Academy contains the Engineering Technology and Electronics & Robotics programs. The academy brings students in those three programs together under one umbrella where the technical and academic curricula can be tailored to them.

The Engineering Academy provides training in civil, electrical, environmental, geophysical, biomedical engineering.
Both the Veterinary Assisting and Biotechnology programs — as well as Nashoba Tech’s 18 other technical programs — will be part of the school’s Open House on Sunday, Nov. 1, from noon to 3 p.m.