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Bioscience SSA

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