One of the main findings from MassBio’s 2022 Life Sciences Workforce Analysis report was the existing educational and workforce training ecosystem in Massachusetts was not equipped to supply enough trained life sciences talent to meet employer demand in the coming years. With the expectation at the time of tens of thousands of new people needed to fill a variety of entry and non-entry level roles, it was unclear where all the talent would come from to keep Massachusetts’ leading ecosystem at the top of its game.
Flash forward to 2025, and oof, the outlook is not as optimistic. The biotech industry is shrinking. There are fewer biotech job postings and at the same time companies are shrinking. In the first half of 2025, there were 128 layoff rounds by U.S. biotech companies – a 32% increase from 2024, according to Fierce Biotech.
So, why is Bioversity growing at the same time as the biotech industry is shrinking?
First, we are here for the long term. Our mission to connect underrepresented and low-income residents of Massachusetts to career paths in the life sciences does not change when there is a market slowdown. If anything, the need is greater as employers have become highly selective when hiring new employees, having access to a much bigger talent pool than ever before. If Massachusetts is going to remain the best place in the world for the life sciences, Bioversity must do our part to ensure local residents have access to jobs in this amazing industry.
Second, as the sector continues to regionalize across Massachusetts, Bioversity has the chance to connect great people with great jobs in areas outside of Boston/Cambridge. Our partnership with UMass Lowell created the opportunity to launch another training site in Lowell and bring skilled training to meet in-demand jobs regionally.
Third, Bioversity’s short-term training model (six-to-eight-week programs run frequently during a year) is agile, allowing us to quickly develop and implement new training modules to meet employer needs. Case in point, Bioversity, in partnership with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, created a specialized biomanufacturing training program in collaboration with Moderna. In less than six months, this went from an idea to reality, graduating six students from our pilot in June.
Through the storm of layoffs and company closures, Bioversity graduated its 100th student in June after only eighteen months of operations. We believe strongly that training people in the technical and professional skills as well as in-depth job search readiness makes them valuable candidates in any job market. For the entry-level roles we are training for specifically, the ray of hope right now is there are jobs available. Not as many as once was, but the opportunity still exists.
For us, fewer open roles and more selective employers means that we need to continue to step up our game and control what we’re able to: refine our student selection process, listen carefully to what employers want in entry level talent, refine our curriculum and teaching process to reflect those employer requests, and provide additional one-on-one support to each of our students as they seek a job post-graduation. We’ve even hired a new staffer to do this deep work with our students.
Despite the headwinds, there remains a lot of optimism about the future of biotech in Massachusetts. It probably won’t ever look like it did in 2021/2022, but that’s OK. Bioversity remains ready to help deepen and diversify the talent pool for industry employers, changing the lives of our students and their families and filling key roles with ready to work talent.
There are many ways to support Bioversity, including sponsoring the upcoming MassBio Golf Classic in Support of Bioversity. Sponsoring the event or buying a foursome helps Bioversity sustain our growth and make a bigger impact across our state.
This blog appears on the Bioversity website along with other timely commentary and news posts.