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If the industrial biotechnology sector in the north-west is to grow and thrive, then it must be underpinned by a strong educational sector for training, upskilling, and reskilling the workforce. Not only this, but diversity in the workforce should be supported and there should be strong mechanisms in place that deliver on this.

Opportunities

• The north-west has an extremely strong higher education sector which places it in the perfect position to train the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Challenges

• There is a skills gap between what industry needs and what students are taught.
• Few re-skilling and up-skilling opportunities for mid-senior career workers.
• The cost of education is a barrier to many wishing to continue their education.
• Diversity and inclusion in science and engineering disciplines is poor, mainly due to the barriers to entry.

Education

The north-west has a very strong educational sector, with at least six universities in the region offering a myriad of courses that feed into the biomanufacturing skills pipeline. However, there is still a disconnect between the skills needed by industry and the education provided by the university curriculum. Without a joined-up approach from higher education and businesses, the number of graduates with the requisite skills to support a growing bioeconomy is likely to be limited.

The universities of the region recognise this skills gap and are actively taking steps to incorporate business elements into courses to help develop commercial awareness. Many also have industrial advisory boards who advise on curriculum content and pair courses with enterprise units so that students get a balance of academic tutoring and real-world business skills.

Workforce skills

A multidisciplinary workforce is an asset that allows for more creative problem solving, more efficient processes, and better diversity. Moving away from ‘functional bunkers’, allows for cross-pollination between disciplines and chances for re-skilling and up-skilling. Alongside the need for cross-boundary working is also the need for strong numeracy, literacy, and digital skills to understand the vast and rapidly changing data and statistics, as well as being able to write technical reports. However, for our current workforce, especially those in the mid-to-upper levels, it can be easy to become entrenched in one field with few opportunities to break down silos.

A participant with a chemistry background highlighted that they took part in a knowledge transfer secondment to receive molecular biology-related training and this was an effective way to upskill. It also helped the participant to easily incorporate biology learning materials into non-bio courses. Through these secondments, it would be useful for scientists to have a glimpse of industry processes and requirements, as well as enabling long-term networking. However, SMEs may not have the resources to send their workforce off for a period to upskill, hence workplace learning practices should be further explored and improved.

Diversity and inclusion

Companies with a diverse workforce are 36% more likely to outperform non-diverse companies. However, many science and engineering disciplines struggle to attract diversity, something that is recognised both in the education sector and in industry.

Both higher education and companies have implemented programmes that are designed to increase diversity and encourage inclusion. Yet there are still barriers for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds wanting to access higher education in the form of high tuition fees, increasing living costs, and poor job prospects upon graduation.

One route in is through degree apprenticeships, and while they are a successful mechanism for increasing inclusion, they have become a victim of their own success with many programmes oversubscribed. There are also only a limited number of degree apprenticeships available, mostly within business and engineering, leaving the life sciences underserviced.

Ultimately, this results in graduates largely coming from middle- and upper-class backgrounds, with little ethnic diversity. Companies naturally want to hire from the top performing early career candidates, but this leaves many EDI issues unaddressed.

Future solutions

To address these challenges, several actions could be taken:

• Universities and businesses could work more closely together to design courses that are both academic and practical and support industrial needs.
• For those already in the workforce, more desk-based learning opportunities could be made available (such as the IB MOOC).
• Further practical training opportunities should be made available for those early in their careers to gain skills in things such as microbial handling and manipulation.

The future workforce for industrial biotechnology could be vastly improved with better collaboration between industry and higher education. Both have a duty to put in place checks the mean they meet EDI criteria, and everyone is afforded the same opportunities to progress through their chosen career.

This foresighting workshop was made up of eighteen participants from different stakeholder groups, from biopharmaceutical and biomanufacturing companies, Higher Education Institutions, trade associations and life sciences consultancies. The size of the companies ranged from global, mid-sized to spin-out companies, allowing for distinction between their capabilities and infrastructure.

This article was put together by Ling Li Boon and Dr Neil Dixon.