Bioscience Sector Skills Agreement
The Sector Skills Agreement for the Bioscience sector was
completed in May 2008.
The Sector Skills Agreement documents can be downloaded
below:
Stage 1 - Skills Needs
Assessment
Stage 2 - Executive
Summary
Assessment of Current
Provision Part 1
Assessment of Current
Provision Part 2
Assessment of Current
Provision Part 3
Stage 3 - UK Gap
Analysis
England Gap Analysis
Wales
Gap Analysis
Scotland
Gap Analysis
Northern Ireland Gap
Analysis
Stage 5 -
UK Report and Action Plans
Sector Skills Agreement Key Findings
The SSA process resulted in the following findings:
- Skills shortages and gaps are greater in the
bioscience sector than in other sectors.
- The number of universities offering
bioscience-related subjects is declining.
- The number of first degrees gained in
bioscience-related subjects has declined over the last six years:
by 27% in biological sciences and by 23% in chemistry.
- Only a small minority of the graduates in
these relevant subjects enter the bioscience industry or go onto
higher degrees in the subject.
- Only 5% of all the higher educational
qualifications achieved in 2006 were in the sciences relevant to
the bioscience sector.
- The take-up of Foundation Degrees, HNC/Ds and
BTEC National Certificates is low.
The Sector Skills Agreement process revealed the following
employer skills priorities and plans for action:
Improve sector image and attractiveness
- Enthuse young people to aspire to a career in
science.
- Improve information, advice and guidance
about the sector.
- Encourage adults in other sectors to consider
bioscience.
- Attractive, rewarding sector for
redeployment.
- Improve science literacy across society.
- Make career paths clearer and more
transparent.
Achieve a top-quality workforce
- Close the skills gap by increasing the supply
of quality people.
- Change metrics for undergraduate achievement
to reflect employer needs.
- Promote and develop a responsive system for
generating short courses for industrial scientists at
universities.
- Develop ‘fit for purpose’ National
Occupational Standards and improve take-up.
- Make better use of Further Education and apprenticeships.
- Press for practical skills to be an integral component of the
education system.
Enhance leadership and entrepreneurship
- Develop a pool of strategic leaders to drive
and support SMEs and larger organisations.
- Link regional and national scientific leaders
to existing ‘clusters and networks’ to establish regional focus and
strength.
Improve employer engagement
- Develop a national framework of clusters and
networks as a focal point for engaging employers in the skills
agenda and sharing best practice.
- Promote the framework as a critical enabler
to implement the skills strategy UK-wide.
Pharmaceutical and Bioscience Labour Market Survey
This survey, carried out in December 2006, collected data
from 178 sites in the sector, employing nearly 27,500 people.
Click below to download the report:
Pharma and Bio Labour Market
Survey
Sector Skills Agreements Highlights Winter 2007
The Highlights brochure features key employers who are leading
the way within their sector networks to demonstrate the
productivity and performance improvements possible through
investment in skills. In addition it outlines the contributions
made by our partners and tracks progress towards achieving our key
aims of:
- Optimising employer and public investment in skills.
- Securing public funding for priorities identified in the
SSA.
Download from link below:
Bioscience SSA
Highlights - Winter 2007