The gulf of skills in the biotech industry

Each year, thousands of biotech graduates enter the Indian workforce but many of them are unemployable due to various reasons — students have limited practical learning opportunities, there is a lack of collaboration between industry and academia and the curriculum is often outdated and does not equip students with the skills in demand.

This is happening at a time when the Indian biotech is rapidly evolving. Pharmaceutical and bio-pharma industries are under tremendous pressure to bring out superior drugs into the market in the shortest possible time, with minimal expense.

Considering the recent growth of the industry and the mark that Indian companies are making in the global healthcare sector, the youth can benefit from the opportunities that are cropping up in the sector.

But companies prefer highly-skilled professionals with hands-on experience rather than freshers because of the gulf between academia and the industry.

Cascading effect

India currently has more than 700 institutions offering biotechnology courses producing 40,000 plus engineering and science graduates/postgraduates in diverse streams of biotechnology.

Students who complete their Bachelors and Masters in Biotechnology and allied life sciences, easily take six to eight months to get themselves trained and acquainted in a professional setup.

Companies end up investing a lot of time and resources in grooming these fresh hires.

The huge skill gap mean that less than 10% of the students are gainfully employed in the Biotech industry.

This is leading to a cascading effect, where colleges try to place graduates in non-life science companies, forcing many students to switch to alternate career paths.

Colleges which fail to place students are unable to sustain their courses in the long run, while the industry continues to find it difficult to get the requisite workforce with the right set of skills.

Although the issue can be tackled at the academic side to some extent, the industry will play a major role for it to be realised.

Industry-oriented internship programmes: A closer collaboration between universities and biotech companies in the form of internship programmes could help make the young graduates industry-ready.

Funds: Companies in the Biotech industry should take the lead in setting up funds for these skill-training activities, in collaboration with the academia.

The students will benefit immensely through right mentorship and opportunities through these processes, eventually leading to establishment of a robust innovation-led Biotech eco-system in India.

Bridging the skill gap

Most academic institutes in India have always focused on developing a large number of qualified personnel but not necessarily with the skills sought by the industry. This has led to a clear need to help students specialise in their chosen field through a rigorous, experiential approach.

Life science students could benefit immensely through a practical knowledge in specific roles sought in the industry.

(The author is the academic manager at a biotechnology institute in Bengaluru )