More than 100 participants, 19 universities, 2 studies: Arterium held a tripartite conference to improve the quality of training for future professionals in the pharmaceutical industry.
Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies are seeking key employees in pharmacy, biotechnology, and technology, working on the development of new products, their improvement, and quality. However, Arterium's experience indicates that university graduates still lack the knowledge to work with modern technologies. It takes at least six months of practical training to meet the requirements of open vacancies.
"Every higher education institution should keep up with the times, be a carrier and transmitter of new knowledge, experience, and trends. Since the pharmaceutical industry is dynamic and progressive in development, businesses interested in staffing should take care of future professionals even during their education. At Arterium, we have been working with students from 4-5 courses of specialized universities for a long time, providing extracurricular information on modern trends in technology, development, and analytical control methods," said Yuliia Korolenko, Product Research and Development Manager at Arterium
On 16 May, the Tripartite Conference "Business and Education in the Pharmaceutical Industry. A Recipe for Effective Cooperation" was held in Kyiv with the participation of more than a hundred participants at the initiative of Arterium. As a socially responsible business, Arterium brought together all stakeholders: representatives of the education system, private business, and students, initiating the conference to improve the quality of training for future professionals.
The foundation for the conference and the subject of panel discussions were the results of a study conducted by Arterium in collaboration with the youth NGO UkrTeenScience. More than 600 respondents, students of pharmaceutical and biotechnological faculties, participated in the survey. Over 15% of respondents related to the pharmaceutical industry believe that the educational program does not meet the real market needs. "There is a gap in that university programs do not keep up with market realities, and the university, and consequently the student, are playing catch-up," students say. They also note that educational institutions need to modernize their technical base and reformat their educational programs.
"As for university education: questions to educational components that require more modernization, the presentation of theoretical material closer to the realities of scientific business. Regarding business, our youth sees that it is not after obtaining a diploma, but even before that, students need to have their first practical skills. Universities and businesses should act together: create dual educational programs, investment platforms, and speak with one voice to the state so that it also sees these problems and, by changing regulations, makes them more realistic, qualitative, and more progressive," said Vladlen Volodavchyk, Head of the youth NGO UkrTeenScience.
In the face of current challenges, retaining and attracting human capital to Ukrainian business is not easy, says Larysa Onypko, HR expert: "Over the past nearly 15 years, the number of students in Ukraine has decreased by about half—from 2.5 to 1.3 million. The employment rate of higher education graduates today is 59%. Students did not note pharmacy as that popular industry that would enter the top chosen professions. However, for specialists with experience, pharmacy has entered the top three most promising industries. This indicates a communication gap: young people do not know what salary and special benefits are in the pharmaceutical industry, what career development trajectory is. These communication chains need to be built from three sides: business, students, and educational institutions."
The first link in this chain was laid at the Tripartite Conference during the panel discussion.
Oleksandr Kukhtenko, Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Preparation Technologies at the National Pharmaceutical University, guarantor of the educational program "Technologies of Pharmaceutical Preparations," says: "Universities today actively work in terms of professional orientation of young people regarding their educational programs. Everyone has their approaches, but the main thing in choosing the best future for an applicant should be the opportunity to receive modern European education that opens paths to employment after graduation. We update educational programs annually, taking into account market trends, stakeholders' desires, conduct a series of career guidance events in Kharkiv and throughout Ukraine — and today we heard experts' opinions from business and colleagues on how we can further develop a strategy to attract youth to pharmacy. Conference participants agreed that we need more active interaction: when business helps students with practical knowledge — practical pharmacy will receive new ideas from students and educators in product development, modern approaches to the development of the pharmaceutical sector of healthcare, and so on. At the same time, students who are involved in internships and practical training will share their impressions of the prospects of the pharmaceutical world in their circles, thus popularizing pharmacy among youth." They jointly discussed the main changes in pharmacy that require updating educational programs, identified obstacles to improving pharmaceutical education, how they can be overcome, outlined new approaches to teaching pharmaceutical disciplines that can improve students' assimilation of material. And jointly formed new models of interaction that will work for the development, popularization, and prosperity of Ukrainian pharmacy. "Our goal is to build new models of interaction: business – youth, business – universities, universities – youth. Our conference became that platform where even before the end of the event, participants began to develop these interaction models: proposed ideas for joint projects and educational events, teachers also came up with ideas on how to cooperate more effectively with students. However, whatever projects we do together, without the participation of the Ministry of Education, we cannot do. Therefore, we decided on our platform to form a joint request that would reflect the interests of each side and direct it to the Ministry," summed up the conference results Anna Yehorova, head of Arterium's Corporate University.