SwedenBIO Star Award nominees contribute to competence development

Five nominees compete for an award for outstanding contributions to solving the competence and staffing shortage within the Swedish life science industry, at SwedenBIO’s annual meeting on May 18.

The SwedenBIO Star Award was created to highlight extraordinary efforts by individuals or organizations to address common challenges within life sciences. This year’s prize is focused to the skills shortage the industry is facing, which hampers the growth of companies.

The winner of the SwedenBIO Star Award 2022 will be announced at the industry organisation’s annual meeting and executive dinner, hosted at Berns in Stockholm, on May 18.

A total of five actors have been nominated for their outstanding work to overcome this challenge. This year’s nominees are Business Sweden, RISE, Läkemedelsakademin, MPYA Sci & Tech, and Frans Schartaus Handelsinstitut.

The jury’s motivation

To sustain and further build on the manufacturing capabilities in the Swedish life science industry, investments in competence development are of utmost importance. Educational programmes that can meet the broad and evolving demands of the industry are needed.

Various efforts have been made of the last couple of years to strengthen the competence base for manufacturing companies. Thorough mapping of the manufacturing capabilities and investment opportunities has been done by Business Sweden, as well as a specific mapping of the full vaccine value chain by RISE.

Continued education for employees in the pharma manufacturing industry is supported by academic institutions and by Läkemedelsakademin.

SwedenBIO’s PUT (process and production) group has competence development as a core area; one notable example is an active network for validation and qualification competences where employees from various member companies that are active in this field share experiences and best practice. Though this network we see a clear win–win for employees, companies, and the sector as a whole. The enthusiasm and drive of MPYA Sci & Tech has given this network a great start.

In order to bring forward skilful new operators to the production companies, educational programmes are needed. Currently three pharmaceutical-technician programmes are run in Sweden, one in Lund, Uppsala, and Stockholm, respectively. These programmes corresponds well to the industry’s needs and many students are recruited by manufacturing companies upon completion.

One such programme is offered by Frans Schartau Handelsinstitut, which delivers a good curriculum and also collaborate well with the industry. Manufacturing companies in Sweden are represented in the programme’s leadership team and contribute to the evaluation of the curriculum to ensure the right quality.

SwedenBIO thanks all nominees for the work they each have carried out to solve the competence-shortage issue within life science, and wish them the best of luck ahead of the award ceremony on May 18.