In a major initiative aimed at developing professional skill among fresh graduates in pharmacy to undertake the challenging jobs in the specialized drug manufacturing industry, the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) is planning a collaborative training programme with major pharmacy colleges in India.

The six-month training programme, called Skill Development Training (SDT), will focus on areas such as analytical, quality management, manufacturing etc., said Daara Patel, secretary-general, IDMA.

While briefing about the project to Pharmabiz over telephone, Patel said fresh graduates are not sufficiently trained to take up jobs in the drug industry which is very specialized one with unique requirements of education and skill. The necessary education in different aspects like pharmacology, pharmaceutics etc. is being taught by the pharmacy colleges. But, their skills need to be developed in various functional disciplines to equip them to really employable. So, IDMA’s SDT programme will help them fulfill this lacuna in the formal education and the lack of necessary exposure to shop floor experience, he said.

“First we will start the programme in north Indian states and gradually move to south. For this, IDMA has decided to collaborate with pharmacy colleges to enable their deserving graduates to be provided hands-on training by our members in the quality control and manufacturing departments in their factories. All the colleges willing to participate in this endeavour would be requested to identify and submit the names of suitable candidates for this training program with IDMA’s member companies. We are in discussion with a number of colleges in Maharashtra and in the north Indian states for tie-ups,” Patel told Pharmabiz.

When asked whether IDMA is partnering with any other association for implementing the project, he said the training programme is his association’s own project and tie-ups are only with academic institutions. The training will kick-start either in July or in August this year. The training period is expected to last for six months from the date of inception within the member company. The participant of the programme has to pay a nominal fee to the company prior to the commencement of the training.

On completion of the training period, the candidates would be required to make a detailed power point presentation of their training experience in the company, before a panel of experts from IDMA, the College and the company in which they were trained, he maintained.

Regarding future projects, Patel said IDMA is in now engaged in talks with a few colleges to build industry-academia linkages. He said the experience in the West shows that such industry academia partnerships facilitate for faster, smoother and more economical researches. The focus of these linkages would be to initiate projects that are mutually beneficial such as jointly organizing round tables, workshops, seminars etc. on pharma sector inviting leading industry heads to deliver talks. He requested the faculties and students of the pharmacy colleges to associate with his Association and participate in the upcoming training programmes. He said IDMA’s endeavour is always to promote the growth and development of the industry and the academia.