The document, issued by the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (Semta), defines the key scientific skills that the country's 55,000 strong laboratory and biomanufacturing workforce need and is based on Semta's work with major industry players.
It comes against a backdrop of widespread concerns about a shortage of trained staff to operate the growing number of bioproduction facilities around the world, as well as localised concerns that the UK is losing its competitive edge in science.
Earlier this year, research conducted by Semta during the preparation of the wider Bioscience Sector Agreement indicated that 29 per cent of UK bioscience firms lack science expertise in certain areas. The work also showed that one in four companies in the UK is now employing overseas scientists to meet this shortfall.
In an interview, Dr Philip Wright, science director of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said a shortage of skills was the number one issue facing the UK drug sector, both in terms of the quality and quantity of staff.
"The UK had a traditional strength in preclinical pharmacology and early clinical development: now other countries have caught up," he said. "There has been a qualitative reduction in the country's science skills base, and other countries have now caught up. And that has an impact on the UK industry because companies will invest where the skills are."
The draft guidelines are part of the bioscience skills plan launched by the UK's Secretary of State for innovation, universities and skills, John Denham MP, earlier this year.
At the time, he said that the plan would "be instrumental both in promoting the sector to young people and in equipping graduates with high-level skills they need."
Input from UK bioscience firms
Semta's proposals, which are based on consultations with scientists working at 170 UK bioscience and pharmaceutical firms including AstraZeneca, Penn Pharmaceuticals and Eden Biodesign, cover separate suites of core skills and standards for laboratory and biomanufacturing employees.
In preparing the guidelines, Semta asked participating companies to rate their respective levels of competence in the two areas using a scale of five descriptors. Based on these responses, a detailed series of draft national occupational standards were developed.
The firms were also asked to divide laboratory and biomanufacturing roles according to the level of scientific competency required by each, producing a hierarchical list, ranging, in the case of biomanufacturing, from pack technician to team manager.
Semta has initiated a UK-wide consultation period, and will be accepting feedback until the end of July this year. John Ryalis, who is leading the project for Semta, told in-PharmaTechnologist that when finalized, the document would be submitted to the UK National Occupational Standards database.
He added that the standards would eventually be applied to national vocational qualifications throughout the UK, thereby putting in place structured education programs that are a direct response to the needs of the country's bioscience sector.
Global efforts to improve science skills
Semta's work is in step with general efforts to improve the science skills base in the global bioscience industry, prompted by a report by BioPlan Associates in 2005 that found that a shortage of trained and experienced production staff was the top challenge facing biopharmaceutical developers and contract manufacturers.
For example, last month Penn Pharmaceuticals, a member group involved in devising the draft standards, announced that it had spent around £130,000 (€165,500) on external science training alone in 2007, while US consultancy BioKinetics recently launched online training modules designed to address skill shortages in the industry.
