Statistics show that after gaining valuable work experience in the sector, close to 80% of these professionals move on to higher education overseas and settle there.
That there is a talent crunch in the biotechnology sector could well be passe. On the second day of Bangalore India Bio 2011, it was reiterated that talent may not be the problem area after all.
The real problem, said industry experts, was retention of talent and skills, which was now available in abundance in the sector. K Dharmalingam from department of biotechnology, distinguished biotechnology research professor, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, said it is imperative for the industry and the education sector to work in unison if the sector has to retain the cream of the crop.
“We need to produce students who are ready to take up jobs through the existing education system. At the moment, many move on to academia and other sectors rather than work in the industry.”
Statistics show that after gaining valuable work experience in the sector, close to 80% of these professionals move on to higher education overseas and settle there. The challenge lies in finding individuals who are looking for a career in the industry. This has also led to a gaping hole in the supply pool of technicians. Another byproduct of higher education is that these ‘highly qualified’ graduates target only the top companies when 70-80% of the industry consists of SMEs.
Shyam Suryanarayanan, founder and CEO, C-Drive HR services, pointed out that the demand and supply mix is skewed in the sector. A majority of applicants mentioned Biocon and Serum Institute of India as their preferred choices. Biotech is largely viewed as uni-dimensional, but it is multi-disciplinary. FMCG and cosmetics are also industries where the same talent pool can contribute heavily.
Ravi Dasgupta, vice-president, group HR, Biocon, said that despite being one of the top recruiters in the industry, the company still has 500 positions that go vacant, even after recruiting close to 1,500 professionals annually. These numbers are dwarfed in comparison to IT recruitments, which are on a much larger scale.
The industry has been losing promising candidates with educational background in biotech engineering to IT majors such as Infosys and Wipro, he added. Tamil Nadu has taken several key initiatives to boost the sector. Taking a queue from Infosys, the state has set up a training centre based on a similar public-private partnership (PPP) model and various technician training programmes.
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