Friday, February 8, 2019

LOL skills gap

From the inbox, a hilarious example of "skills gap" language (emphasis mine)
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is warning that the UK needs to fill an increasing number of science skills gaps in order to retain its prominent position for medicines and vaccines research and development.... 
...“We have long been concerned by the skills gap in clinical pharmacology, as identified in the ABPI’s report. These skills are crucial for leading research and clinical trials, and for ensuring the best healthcare for patients,” commented Dr Anna Zecharia, director of Policy at the British Pharmacological Society. 
To help address the situation, the trade association says it is working with allied organisations, including the British Science Association, to inspire more young people to pursue STEM careers, and is involved in the development of standards for a new high-level Clinical Pharmacology Scientist apprenticeship.
This situation is terrible, which is why we're (checks notes) talking to pre-college students about studying STEM, making sure that our solution is at least 4 years out?

(Also, there aren't enough clinical pharmacologists in the UK? Surely this is not a huge field there? (There were 120,000 medicinal scientists in 2016, clinical pharmacologists fall under this classification in the US. I can't imagine there are more than ???? 12,000 ??? clinical pharmacologists in the UK? with a need for ~400 new ones a year? Who knows?) 


  1. Well, our CRO's need people willing to work for cheap. Grad students aren't going to move, and post-docs or PhDs likely already know the score, and don't want to come here, so what are you going to do? We don't actually want to pay people (which would have a more immediate and long-term effect but would cost us money) - we want a solution that costs someone else money.

    The problem is that most of the stable pharma jobs in Britain have disappeared, and so there's no hope for potential workers that they can make a career there. Add the government's insistence on fragging its country and you have a place and a job sector that is pretty unattractive right now.

  2. Well, since PhDs in the UKs can be completed in less than 3 years, just cut it down to 18 months to speed things up! And those who can't find a job can just post-doc for 1 year in the US and start at Senior Scientist level! That's easy...

    Meanwhile, you have to stick it for 3 years for a Canadian MSc, and up to 7 years for a US PhD, excluding post-docking into your late 30s.

    "Don't waste time with education. Get degrees instead" (Chinese proverb)