TSSB Skill Standards

All biotech programs in Texas worked together to adopt the Texas Skill Standards.

This project, in collaboration with the Texas Skill Standards Board (TSSB), was developed by five colleges with biotechnology programs that are recognized by the TSSB for integrating the biotechnology standards into their associate’s degrees. Those colleges include: Austin Community College (ACC), Collin County Community College, Del Mar College, Lone Star College-Montgomery, and Temple College. El Centro College of the Dallas County Community College District, which was in the process of applying for TSSB program recognition as this project was being developed, and subsequently received that recognition, also contributed input. The project was funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board through a Perkins state leadership grant administered by Del Mar College.

The colleges above agreed to teach and assess the skill standards’ competencies, or key activities, as learning outcomes in a common technical core of courses. Each of the colleges produced assessments to evaluate students on the key activities integrated into one (or two, in the case of ACC) of the courses in the technical core; a handbook was developed to serve as a guide to the assessments and the project as a whole.

The documents in the table below recommend instruction and examples of how to teach and assess students to achieve the competencies defined by industry in the Biotechnology and Biomedical Skill Standards for Research and Development (biotechnology standards).http://www.bio-link.org/home/shoreline-community-college/biotechnology-skill-standards

To access the TSSB documents, you will need to request a TSSB account and log in to this site.  REQUEST A TSSB ACCOUNT. 

The handbook and common course matrix are attached.