CHERRYFIELD – If you want one of those high-tech jobs of the future that you keep hearing about, with an average starting salary of $31,600, then The Jackson Laboratory wants you.

Beginning in mid-July, the lab will offer 10 people a 10-week training program in its new Cherryfield training center, free of charge, to prepare them for full-time work at its world-famous Bar Harbor biomedical research lab.

If everything goes well, the lab expects to offer new 10-week programs several times a year.

“The thing we’re lacking here at the lab is people,” Charles Bates, director of employee education and training, said Monday. “In order to continue to meet the demands of biomedical research, we need to continue our outreach efforts to find more employees.”

The only requirement for recruits is that they have a high school diploma, according to lab officials, who say they need to hire two new production technicians a week for the foreseeable future to help care for the millions of mice housed at the lab. People interested in taking the course must apply.

The lab plans to advertise in area newspapers soon with more information on how and where to apply.

The new Cherryfield program, announced Monday, will complement a similar new education program in Fairfield, where more advanced classes are offered to people with degrees in life sciences.

“In baseball, to get a hit you have to come to bat,” Cherryfield Town Manager George Hanington said Monday. “I feel that Jackson Lab is giving people in this region a chance at bat.”

Hanington said he would urge people to take advantage of the program, particularly younger residents who want to stay in Maine but are discouraged about their job prospects.

Joyce Peterson, Jackson Lab spokeswoman, said students who successfully complete the training will receive a certificate they can take to any biomedical research facility in seeking employment. But the lab hopes the recruits will want to join the Bar Harbor facility.

The Cherryfield graduates won’t be guaranteed a job at Jackson Lab, “but they will definitely have a leg up and [the training] will enable them to get right to work at the lab,” Peterson said.

Bates said the first Cherryfield class will be offered during the day. But night or weekend classes might be offered in the future if the people applying for the slots can’t attend during the day.

Bates said the Cherryfield program will train people for entry-level jobs taking care of the mice at the lab. Once someone gets trained and hired, they are able to take more classes, including college courses, to advance to other, higher-paying jobs, Bates said.

“Entry-level workers can progress to wherever they want to go,” Bates said, “and we’re going to help them get there.”

Both Peterson and Hanington agreed that housing and transportation are issues they also need to pay attention to in trying to match Cherryfield area workers with the Bar Harbor lab.

Jackson Lab already runs a bus service from Franklin to Bar Harbor and will consider expanding service to Cherryfield if the job recruitment is successful, Peterson said.

In the longer term, lab officials are hoping a commuter ferry will be established that would cross Frenchman Bay from Winter Harbor, offering Washington County workers another way to get to Mount Desert Island.

Housing is a growing problem in Bar Harbor and other island towns, and only half of the lab’s current 1,200 employees live on MDI.

“There’s no question that housing is one of the major issues here, and that’s true for anyone who wants to live and work here [on MDI],” Peterson said.