The Prince Edward Island-based Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences, or CASTL, has announced a partnership with Vancouver’s adMare BioInnovations to offer technical training to prospective life sciences workers.

CASTL is a partnership between academia, industry and government that specializes in training workers for the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry, using curriculums created by Irish industry group the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training. AdMare, which has campuses in Vancouver and Montreal, is a life sciences innovation hub that also offers training programs for workers and executives in the industry.

The deal will see the two organizations collaborate on education programs nationwide. In a press release, the groups said they will provide a range of theoretical and hands-on courses aimed at making graduates employable in biotech.

“By working together under the auspices of the adMare Academy, we will accelerate the building and implementation of CASTL’s pre-eminent biopharma manufacturing training, and amplify our impact on the sector from coast to coast to coast,” said CASTL Executive Director Penny Walsh-McGuire.

The announcement comes as PEI’s biotechnology sector grapples with a labour shortage, with the growth of local businesses outstripping the supply of workers. Last year, a study sponsored by the PEI BioAlliance found that the bioscience sector was the province’s second-largest export industry in 2018, but CEO Rory Francis said in an interview at the time that infrastructure and labour constraints represented obstacles to future growth.

“Growth does have consequences, and the consequence of what has been essentially a doubling of size of the sector over the 2012-2018 period has been that we’re out of space for early-stage companies to scale up manufacturing,” he said.