The biotechnology industry is booming in Montgomery County, and educators want to make sure there will be qualified workers to fill those jobs.

That’s why Montgomery College has partnered with the Universities at Shady Grove and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to offer a new degree program called the Translational Life Sciences Technology program. Students in the program would spend two years at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus, and then two years at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville. 

“The object is for them to get opportunities for the skills, and the education they need for jobs. Jobs that are local, and jobs in industries that we know are growing,” said Stewart Edelstein, executive director for the Universities at Shady Grove.

Officials said more than 75 percent of Maryland’s biotechnology companies are located in Montgomery County.