Nordic Life Science 1
According to Anni Siltanen, Chief Advisor Skills
& Competence at the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, “The government is currently working on a STEM strategy, which the industry has actively pushed for in recent years.” Siltanen believes that whilst many companies in Finland are active in promoting STEM careers, some even using Instagram and Tiktok to target young people, marketing campaigns alone do not provide the answer. “The skills shortages issue cannot be handled in silos, it is a mutual effort between the political decision makers, educational institutions and companies,” she says. One only needs attend a career fair at one of the many esteemed university programs to understand that there is a need for an improved dialogue between industry and the education system. As Helena Marteus explains, “We meet with students every year, and the impression we have is the same year after year, there are many incredibly talented and motivated individuals who have a desire to join the industry but cannot get their foot in the door and are incredibly frustrated. There must be a better way to utilize the skills we have right in front of us.” PharmaRelations recently ran a simple survey of 45 life science companies operating in the Nordics where 75% of the respondents indicated that they did not believe there is effective collaboration with the education sector to ensure long-term skills supply in their specific region (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). “We start to see more and more examples of the number of educational programs being created outside of the university system,” says Marteus. “Even here at PharmaRelations in the Nordics we have developed a structure particularly within the regulatory services arm of our company where juniors are paired with senior consultants to increase their capacity to work with our clients. In an ideal world we would like to see more companies giving juniors opportunities, however, we are also realistic about the fact that not all companies have the capacity or resources to upskill or train a junior. Therefore, by paring a junior with an experienced senior consultant in house at PharmaRelations, we help to absorb the burden of training specific skills. This exchange of knowledge is wonderful to see both for the junior learning new skills and the senior imparting valuable experience.” A perfect way of bridging the gap is the education program for pharmaceutical technician (läkemedelstekniker) through the Frans Schartau Business Institute. This was created in response to the increased demand in pharmaceutical manufacturing in Sweden. Janet Hoogstraate explains that the program was set up Hanne Mette Dyrlie Kristensen, CEO, the Life Science Cluster in Norway and is maintained in close collaboration with SwedenBIO’s member companies to ensure alignment with the industry needs and to provide the opportunity for traineeships. “Furthermore, to stimulate continuous development opportunities for employees, SwedenBIO brings expertise from the various member companies together to exchange experience and best practice, an example of one of these groups is the Validation skill group,” she says. Björn Arvidsson, Managing Director of STUNS Life Science explains that whilst it is not the task of universities to ensure students secure meaningful employment after graduation, “We can do more to improve the connections between the students and the companies and their understanding of one another.” STUNS Life Science addresses this by initiating closer relations to academia, especially in the engineering programs. “Inspired by our colleagues at STUNS Energy, a new concept is being created to get students to work more closely with the life sciences companies during their education. We are trying to broaden the spectrum of companies participating in practical placements, but also challenge the types of projects the students are doing at the companies,” says Arvidsson. He maintains that “As a system, even if we have two very strong universities in Uppsala and a lot of students coming from the traditional life science institutions, most companies want to employ senior staff, people who already have the skills and experience. “What we are trying to do is to make sure the companies better understand the competence of people coming from the