Pharma hub workforce training wins $3.9 million grant

The talent pipeline for the Richmond–Petersburg region’s growing advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing and biotech industries is getting a boost from a $3.9 million federal grant.

Announced in mid-January, the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge grant was awarded to the Community College Workforce Alliance in Disputanta, a shared division of Brightpoint and Reynolds community colleges.

The grant requires the creation of a workforce sectoral partnership intermediary to work with regional pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine their workforce needs and with community colleges and workforce development boards to systematically align workforce training programs with those needs and connect employers with job seekers.

The Richmond-Petersburg region has attracted more than 600 biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers such as Civica Rx, Phlow and Novo Nordisk in recent years. Their needs are constantly evolving, so the intermediary and its partners will continually review, revise and update curricula, says Elizabeth Creamer, CCWA’s vice president of workforce development.

Currently, the grant will support five workforce programs, including a biotechnology laboratory technician associate’s degree at Reynolds Community College and a pharmaceutical manufacturing career studies certificate program at Brightpoint Community College. It will also fund a pharmaceutical manufacturing associate’s degree that Brightpoint will launch this fall and a chemical technician program that will begin in spring 2026 at Reynolds.

In addition, the grant will provide on-the-job training opportunities through which employers can receive wage reimbursements for teaching new hires specific skills. Supportive services, such as transportation and child care assistance, will also be available to help individuals successfully transition into these jobs.

Demand for skilled workers is growing in the region, and a Reynolds Community College study estimates a need for 6,000 new hires over the next 10 years. The workforce initiative aims to enroll 280 people over three years, with a commitment to placing 228 of them in jobs, says Sean Terrell, Reynolds’ associate vice president of research, planning and grants.

Richmond resident Camille Jackson, then age 32, enrolled in Brightpoint’s nine-month pharmaceutical manufacturing career studies certificate program in June 2024 and began working for Civica, visually inspecting manufactured products, in September, before her December graduation. Her new job pays $20 an hour and offers benefits and a chance for advancement.

“It changes everything,” says Jackson, who saw no chance of moving up at her previous job at the Virginia Department of Health Professions. “It just opened up a lot more doors.”