Thanks to a partnership between Wilson Community College and GlaxoSmithKline, 20-year-old Evan Barnes is getting hands-on lab experience and classroom instruction at the same time.

Barnes, a WCC student and a GlaxoSmithKline employee, is getting paid as he works toward his associate degree. Once he completes the program, he will already have a job at the pharmaceutical company in Zebulon as a biotechnology lab analyst. Barnes won’t have any college debt, either.

“They are paying for your college,” Barnes said of the company’s apprenticeship program. “They are giving you a job. I jumped right at it.”

The apprenticeship program offers high school graduates and first-year college students the opportunity to begin their career while working to earn their associate degree.

Barnes is the first WCC student to be a part of the apprenticeship program at GSK. Company officials pick two WCC students per year.

“When I go there, I have a schedule,” Barnes said. “I put on my lab coat, my glasses and I have things I’ve got to get done.”

Barnes is in his first year of WCC’s biotechnology program. He goes to school eight hours a week and works 32 hours a week at GSK.

THEORY AND PRACTICE

Biotechnology instructor Stephanie Winstead said the pharmaceutical company was looking for a community college to partner with.

“They looked at our program of study and they deemed it was the most appropriate for what they needed in terms of the courses we offered,” Winstead said. “It was what they wanted their apprentices to complete.”

Winstead said Barnes learns the concepts in class and puts those lessons into practice at work.

“It really helps you understand it,” she said. “You learn the theory and go out and practice it immediately afterwards.”

Barnes has always enjoyed science classes, especially those with lab time involved. He applied for the apprenticeship program through GSK and started in the fall. Barnes said the program has been great because GSK works with his school schedule. He said he continues to learn new things in the lab each week at GlaxoSmithKline.

“When I finish this program, GSK already knows what I’ve learned,” Barnes said. “They put me in every class I need. They know the field.”

‘VERY INVOLVED’

Barnes said he gets everything he needs while he’s a student at WCC, too.

“It’s helping a whole lot,” he said, adding that the college’s partnership with GSK is vital.

“It keeps you from thinking you are just going to school to learn about a topic to get a degree,” he said. “You’ve very involved. You’re not just going to school to say you’re certified to do something. You’re going to school to actually help you with what you are doing.”

Barnes said when he first went to GSK’s lab, everything looked foreign to him. But working with his supervisor in gaining that hands-on experience, combined with classroom time, things are now becoming second nature. Barnes said he continually gets trained on new things within the lab as well.

It will take Barnes three years to complete his associate degree instead of two because he works and attends school at the same time through the apprenticeship program.

Winstead said GSK offers the apprenticeship program in partnership with educational institutions around the world.