PROVIDENCE — Faced with a lack of qualified workers, leaders in Rhode Island’s emerging biotechnology industry say the most effective way to close the skills gap is by improving education programs.

For that to happen, business leaders and educators must work together — a partnership that the Tech Collective, a local trade organization, pledges to cultivate by bringing the sides together regularly, starting with a forum last Wednesday.

Concern about the industry began in November when the Tech Collective released a report showing that 56 percent of the state’s bioscience companies, including those in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and research and development, identified a lack of skilled workers as their primary hurdle.

Companies such as Amgen and Rhodes Technologies, a Coventry pharmaceutical company, acknowledged at last week’s forum that the challenge is even greater for jobs that require advanced skills. The Tech Collective study found it can take six months or more to hire entry and mid-level workers, while searches for senior-level executives can take up to a year.

When the Providence company EpiVax wanted to hire a senior-level molecular biologist recently, it received plenty of out-of-state résumès, but “between two staffing agencies, they only turned up one local candidate,” said Clifford Grimm, EpiVax’s manager of finance and administration. They are still searching for the right fit.

“The more critical skills needed for a position, the more challenging it is to find skilled workers,” said Jamie Brooks, director of training and development at Amgen.

Longer searches can lead to delays in research or product development. In the most extreme cases, they force companies to move operations elsewhere.

On the other hand, a commitment to improving bioscience training programs will do more than just stem those troubles, it will better position the biotechnology sector to expand beyond the 5,000 people it now employs in the state, said Tech Collective Executive Director Kathie Shields.

It’s not that there aren’t programs in Rhode Island to train workers for the bioscience field. In addition to a handful of undergraduate and advanced-degree programs at universities such as Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, one- and two-year certificate programs geared toward mid-career workers in transition have cropped up at URI and the Community College of Rhode Island. They don’t give the students a formal degree in biotechnology, but they offer a comprehensive science and lab-based curriculum.

The problem, some say, is that even at the entry level, there is a discrepancy between the skills offered in available programs and those needed to land one of the few available jobs.

Kathy Greenwood thinks so.

After two decades working in customer service at several manufacturing jobs, Greenwood, 42, never thought much about switching fields until her teenage son came home from Davies Career and Technical High School and announced he wanted to participate in a bioscience program there.

“What in the world is biotech?” Greenwood asked.

As her son learned the ins and outs of the topic, Greenwood got increasingly curious. Before long, she took a deep breath and enrolled part time in CCRI’s certificate program, an 18-credit biosciences program that provides broad skills.

Then, she lost her job — and said a silent thanks that she’d already begun her coursework.

But now, as she closes in on the day she will earn her certificate, she can’t find a job.

“I’m changing careers, but nobody wants to hire me because I don’t have a bachelor’s degree,” Greenwood said.

Part of the problem seems to be a lack of communication between industry and academia. Colleges and universities cannot build effective training programs at any level without input from the companies that will ultimately hire their students.

The Tech Collective is working on plans to help the sides collaborate on curriculum, ultimately customizing programs for individual companies.

Without a deep pool of local talent just yet, Amgen’s Brooks believes Rhode Island would also be wise to get the word out about its biotechnology industry, looking to attract biotech workers from elsewhere.

But Prof. Ed Bozzi, co-coordinator of URI’s biotechnology manufacturing program, said it’s up to companies such as Amgen to take a chance on local students and give them training they might need to bring them up to speed, even if their credentials are less striking than an outside candidate’s.

“Is the whiz kid from Cal Tech going to help Rhode Island?” Bozzi said. “My students are here. They are going to be here day in and day out, contributing to the success of [these companies] and the state.”

Shields, of the Tech Collective, says that if the state is serious about its investment in bioscience, it must also focus on the next generation, shoring up high schoolcurriculum.

The Rhode Island Department of Education offers bioscience-specific programs — like the Davies one that Kathy Greenwood’s son is participating in — at six high schools across the state. With students making career decisions at a younger age, Bozzi said, the value of capturing their attention earlier cannot be underestimated.

To that end, the Tech Collective says it is critical to get parents on board, educating them about opportunities so they encourage children to consider the industry.

The first step, Shields said, is to raise awareness of the industry. “A lot of people just don’t know what’s out there.”

cneedham@projo.com