Hot Tip -- by Susan Gillespie

What do the food, agriculture, health care (pharmaceuticals in particular), forestry and environmental industries have in common? More than you might think.

Thanks to advancing technology, companies can harness the power of various organisms to develop new products, particularly in the areas of food-agriculture, and health care. For example, new strains of rice rich in bata carotene are being developed to combat blindness in Third World children. Biotech is essential in treating human illness, penicillin for example, and is big in the environmental industry where enzymes/organisms are being harnessed to remove toxic chemicals from the earth.

Remember the root words: bio equals living things, and technology equals computers, sciences and math. This tells you a great deal about the field. If you enjoy sciences, including chemistry, biology, and math, biotechnology careers may be of interest to you.

Research is a good start to help you decide whether biotechnology holds something of interest. Here's an overview of the industry to help start your research. In a nutshell, the Canadian biotechnology sector is composed of two kinds of organizations. One kind, the core organizations, apply science and engineering with living organisms, or its parts, in a way that improves existing processes. Non-core organizations include research centres, laboratories and government agencies using traditional biological techniques. Over half of Canadian biotech companies are in human health care. The next largest segment is in agriculture.

Regardless of area of focus, the biotech field requires people with a variety of education and training. The more education you have, the more opportunities open up to you in the future. And make learning a lifetime commitment because biotech is a rapidly evolving field, and changing careers within an industry is a growing trend.

Approximately 35 per cent of jobs within biotech are research positions, with only about five per cent of these being lab-based, non-scientific positions. Beyond the research area, the other main areas of biotech industry include quality control and assurance, administration and regulation, as well as sales and marketing.

The biotech industry places a very high priority on such essential skill areas as leadership, communications, team work, team building, flexibility and adaptability. Not only are technical skills valued, but employers also want to know how well you can communicate your ideas with co-workers, business partners or purchasers of their services.

The sector also places a strong emphasis on the coming need for laboratory technicians and technologists (diploma and bachelor levels) as research and clinical activities expand. Biochemistry expertise (BSc., M.Sc. and PhD levels) will be particularly important as the industry increases its activities in predicting and modelling protein structure and functions.

There are excellent resources on the web including Biotech, Careers in Biotechnology, which has specific information pertaining to the Canadian biotechnology industry, including occupational profiles of people working in various positions, as well as links to Canadian universities and colleges.

Industry associations are also good sources of information on the biotechnology industry. Some web sites worth checking out include Biotechnology Human Resources Council as well as the American web page www.whybiotech.com.

For information on specific occupations, visit the Alberta Occupational Information site. You might want to read over the biotechnologist occupational profile to start with, but remember people in biotechnology come from all walks of science.

In agricultural biotechnology, occupations include botanist, agriculture engineer, and chemist. Food science technologists, environmental engineers and chemical technologists profiles are also applicable to food and environmental positions. Biologist, biochemist, chemist, as well as the geneticist profiles will be useful for those looking into medical biotechnology. Even for the marketing and sales positions, a science background is necessary to communicate in both the technical and business community.

Happy research!

(Susan Gillespie is a career counsellor at the Calgary Youth Employment Centre.)