Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Citation

(2000), "Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 21 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2000.02221fab.002

Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Pharmaceutical industry measures skills for a competitive future

Keywords Pharmaceutical industry, Recruitment, Skills, Training

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 pharmaceutical industry is also one of the cornerstones of the UK's economy.

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

Recruitment and training challenges

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 in People status 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: 53 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

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  The pharmaceutical industry 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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  Of these graduates, 26 per cent 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 which 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

The study is based on the analysis of secondary data and a postal survey of pharmaceutical establishments, receiving responses from about one in 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 industry's employees.

Skills for a Competitive Future: A Survey for PhINTO, by N. Jagget and J. Aston, IES Report 366, April 2000, ISBN 1 85184 296 9, price £30.00. May be purchased from Grantham Book Services Ltd, Isaac Newton Way, Alma Park Industrial Estate, Grantham NG31 9SD. Tel: 01476 541080.