Health News

Ireland’s Life Sciences talent gap needs a flexible solution to education

Dr. Ian Jones, CEO, Innopharma

As the demand for highly-skilled workers in pharma increases, flexible and future-focused approaches to qualifications and continuous professional development will help to fill Ireland’s talent gap. 


The demand for talent can be met with flexible approaches to learning and continuous professional development (CPD). Lifelong learning is in fact one of any professional career. A growing and rapidly changing pharma sector needs to look both within and outside of the industry. This in order to develop and up-skill people.

To keep Ireland’s pharma workforce at the leading edge, qualifications that feature advanced manufacturing technology and data analytics topics are critical.

Pharmaceutical companies must work with industry and academic partners to develop education programmes. Moreover, these can be delivered full-time and part-time with online remote learning support. Equally, this flexibility will help those already in the industry to get to the next career level. It will also help people from outside the pharma industry transition into roles.

Qualifications must be relevant and up-to-date

To ensure that education and training are meeting the needs of the pharma industry, it’s critical to work with key industry stakeholders. This to develop programmes that prepare students for these high-tech jobs. Industry lecturers and insights from business can build academic programmes that align academic learning and practical applications.

Training in advanced manufacturing technologies and data science to future-proof our workforce and industry 

Advanced manufacturing technologies and data science are critical areas of focus for the world’s top pharma companies. However, to keep Ireland’s pharma workforce at the leading edge actions need to be taken. Courses and qualifications that feature technology and data analytics topics, as well as subjects such as Lean Six Sigma, are even more important now. Managers and leaders in the industry are starting to explore how they can prepare their people. In to leading the digital future of high-tech pharma manufacturing.