Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Citation

(2000), "Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.2000.00324hab.011

Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Keywords: Pharmaceutical industry, Skills, Training, Recruitment

Staying ahead in research-intensive global markets is a continuing challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Market leadership depends on highly specialised skills, research and development.

The size of the industry as an employer in the UK, its recruitment and training issues, and the level of its skills are contained in a report published by the independent Institute for Employment Studies (IES). It is the result of a survey of the industry commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Industry National Training Organisation (PhINTO) as part of its remit to assess and improve skills and training.

The industry requires some highly specialised skills, which can be expensive to train in, especially for smaller establishments. Those with Investors in People status appear to be more prepared to accept these costs, but the survey identifies that achieving Investors itself presents barriers to small- and medium-sized enterprises. (Among employers with more than 1,000 employees, the proportion with Investors status is comfortably above the national target.)

The National Learning Targets are more comfortably met, reflecting the high skill base of the industry. Fifty-three per cent of industry employees have at least an NVQ level 4 (against a national target of 28 per cent), and this proportion is even higher among the small- to medium-sized establishments. Annual graduate recruitment is equivalent to more than 2 per cent of total staff numbers.

One of the report's recommendations is that PhINTO helps set up training standards and industry-wide occupational standards for areas highly specific to the pharmaceutical industry, such as regulatory affairs and patenting.

Facts and figures include:

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  The pharmaceutical industry in the UK employs around 55,000 people in 725 establishments.

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  Around 1,000 first degree and 300 postgraduates enter the industry on graduation each year. There is no strong gender bias.

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  Twenty-six per cent of these graduates come from the biological sciences, 21 per cent from the physical sciences and 14 per cent from subjects allied to medicine.

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  The most difficult skills to recruit for are those involved in patenting, registration and regulatory affairs. These are highly industry-specific skills, with no clear higher education background discipline.

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  Smaller establishments in particular experience cost barriers to training for specialist skills.

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  Small- to medium-sized companies who also have Investors in People status regard such barriers to training as less of a problem, but they are a minority and even fewer are seeking re-recognition.

The study is based on the analysis of secondary data and a postal survey of pharmaceutical establishments, receiving responses from about one of five of all pharmaceutical establishments in Britain. The survey covered recruitment and training issues as well as establishing the current levels of qualifications held by the industries' employees.

The report (Skills for a Competitive Future: A Survey for PhINTO, by N. Jagger and J. Aston, IES Report 366, ISBN 1-85184-269-9, £30.00) may be purchased from Grantham Book Services Ltd, Isaac Newton Way, Alma Park Industrial Estate, Grantham NG31 9SD. Tel: +44 (0) 1476 541080; Fax: +44 (0) 1476 541060.