JSS College of Pharmacy at Mysore and Ooty with its training and placement cell have facilitated sighting of fresh and promising human resources for the life sciences industry. Around 75 per cent of its 100 students annually opt for online enrollments and are suitably employed in leading pharma, Ayurveda, and biotech companies across the country.

The key advantage for the life sciences industry is that JSS Colleges of Pharmacy are ISO certified  institutions and are  part of the NAAC accredited JSS University. Its curriculum mandate 300 hours hands-on industry-training in B Pharm and 8-10 months industry exposure in M Pharm.

There are several collaborations with the industry not just to hire students but for industry-academia exchange programmes.

“Although campus selection is in vogue for pharmacy education, our Training & Placement Cell has transformed the process seeking jobs in southern India.  This is because the cell provides all possible assistance to prepare the B Pharm and M Pharm students to  facilitate contacts with the companies to secure lucrative jobs. The key objective is to ensure that the  fresh qualified candidate is not alone in job hunting but is supported by a  professional  career guidance”, Dr. HG Shivakumar, principal JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysore told Pharmabiz.

The big take away is that every student can enroll making it easy for lifesciences companies have access to qualified and industry ready professionals. From a student point of view, he does not struggle to get a job. The pay packs are also enticing which makes the next set of job applicants keen to take up a career  soon after college, he added.

The  cell is aggressive in collaborations with  industries to be associated in joint drug development,  testing medical devices, support in regulatory filings and dossier development. Some of the big names include Dr. Reddy’s  Strides Arcolab, Aurobindo Pharma, The Himalaya Drug Company, Phillips Medical Division,  Sciformix, Abbot, Micro Labs, Quintiles, Medreich and  ICON access   faculty support and student assistance. In fact, it displays the  capability of the staff   and students to research and take the developments forward, noted Dr. Raghunandan HV, associate professor and head of placement cell, JSS University.

There cell portal enables qualifying students to enroll after their exams for jobs and for the industry to make a quick scan of the candidates before the campus recruitment. The Career 360 in its top 20 ranking of best Indian colleges has rated JSS Ooty as No. 5 and Mysore as No.13.

Dr. B Suresh, vice chancellor, JSS University and president, Pharmacy Council of India who was the brainchild behind the training and placement cell viewed that job openings were hard to come by for fresh graduates as industry preferred experience over fresh recruits making the employment opportunities for such candidates a challenge.

To enable a return on investment for its advanced infrastructure,  JSS  Mysore  has opened a  Drug Test Lab which is a third party drug analysis centre approved by the Karnataka drugs control department. The Ooty institute has a Centre for Advanced Testing and Research for the industry. There is also an advanced pilot plant for commercial use at both locations replicating a typical industry environment.