Washington’s global health sector is trying to meet its future work force demands by getting more students hooked on science at a young age.

Home to the world’s largest private health funder and several leading research institutions, Washington state has an expanding global health sector. New jobs have been filled, in part, by recruiting from outside the state, but the sector wants to ensure there is local talent to tap in the future.

To meet that future need, the sector is reaching out to the region’s youth through public schools, science fairs and other venues. By developing tomorrow’s work force today, global health groups hope to keep growing and operating smoothly.

Earlier this month, the Washington Research Council published a report on the state’s life sciences industry. It noted the state’s world-class concentration of global health organizations, also said the future work force is a primary concern.

Since 2004, several of the Washington Global Health Alliance’s 11 executive member organizations have doubled their employment. In the last decade, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded nearly $10 billion in global health grants, several of which have fueled a hiring boom at grant recipient organizations in recent years.

“This is a real bright spot for the state’s economy” right now, said Lisa Cohen, executive director of the Washington Global Health Alliance. “It is essential to support the efforts for education and training.”

It is unclear exactly how many workers the sector will require in the coming years.

“The gambit of careers that we know must be filled and prepared for is (significant),” said Theresa Britschgi, director of BioQuest, a science education lab housed at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. The institute is one of several groups working to get young students interested in life sciences.

One of the sector’s key strategies for recruiting future workers is to expose them to researchers and scientists, with the hope that inspiration will translate to career choice.

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