Memorandum submitted by The Association
of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
BACKGROUND
The Association for the British Pharmaceutical
Industry (ABPI) is the voice of the innovative pharmaceutical
and biopharmaceutical industry, working with Government, regulators
and other stakeholders to promote a receptive environment for
a strong and progressive industry in the UK, one capable of providing
the best medicines to patients. Members range in size from multi-national,
integrated pharmaceutical companies, down to small growing companies
and contract research organisations.
The future productivity of the UK depends on
an increase in practical science and technical skills and increased
numeracy—skilled employees are needed from vocational, technical
levels, up to higher research level.
The pharmaceutical industry in the UK is concerned
that insufficient numbers of high quality skilled science graduates
with good depth of subject knowledge are currently being trained
in UK, indeed many graduates lack basic scientific practical skills.
Despite the number of full time undergraduate students having
grown by 9% from 1997 to 2002, in the physical sciences numbers
decreased, by 15% for chemistry and 7% for physics. Indications
are that this trend may be starting to reverse, particularly for
chemistry, it is important that students continue to be encouraged
to study physical sciences at university.
These concerns are so great that, earlier this
year, ABPI set up a taskforce to research issues around recruitment
of employees with the skills the industry demands, into research,
development and manufacturing areas. The report of the taskforce's
work, "Sustaining the Skills Pipeline in the pharmaceutical
and biopharmaceutical sectors" was published in November.
[121]
We also believe that students at all levels
need to be given a better appreciation of the potential for careers
in the technical and scientific and technical sectors of the economy.
KEY POINTS
— We welcome the proposed increase
in vocational course provision within schools and colleges. We
recommend that a 14-19 specialised diploma in science should be
developed, with appropriate support from industry and research.
— The Science Learning Centre network,
industry and teacher training institutes should work together
to develop and support courses to update and extend the practical
skills of teachers, and those training to be teachers, and help
them update their knowledge of cutting edge research.
RESPONSE
The proposals put forward in the White Paper
"Higher Standards, Better Schools for All" will not,
we believe, mark a step change in raising the standards of teaching
and learning within this phase of education. Many of the proposals
contained within the report focus on altering the organisation
of schools, rather than concentrating on what the experience of
school is like as a workplace for teachers, and as a place to
learn for students.
We do not feel it is within our remit to comment
on the detail of the proposals for the introduction of Trust Schools,
parental involvement and school discipline. However, there are
also proposals within the White Paper which are very relevant
to the pharmaceutical industry in the UK, notably the subject
knowledge of teachers and the vocational education offer within
schools and colleges. We will confine our comments to those aspects
of the White Paper which affect our industry most directly.
Vocational education in schools and colleges
We support the trend towards an increase in
providing vocational courses for young people in schools and colleges.
We note that the White Paper suggests that this could be met,
in part, by schools taking on an extra specialism in a vocational
area. We are sceptical about this approach. We do not believe
that many children have developed their subject strengths at the
age at which they, and their parents, select their secondary school.
The introduction of specialised diplomas provides
a route for mixing vocational and academic qualifications which,
we hope, will appeal to many students. The introduction of a diploma
in engineering is welcomed and we support development of a science
diploma as we believe that this would inspire more young people
to consider a career in science—not only at technical level,
but through continuing their studies to honours degree level and
beyond.
High quality education for all students
An education system which addresses the needs
of gifted and talented students and encourages then to maximise
their achievement is vital, and we are pleased to note that the
White Paper promotes support for all students who may be at risk
of underachieving.
Resources to support exciting teaching
We concur with the comment that ICT provides
a powerful tool to tailor teaching and learning and that ICT can
be used to deliver exciting lessons. ABPI supports teaching and
learning in science by providing freely available, interactive,
web based resources linked to the curriculum. We are pleased to
note that use of our ICT materials has increased by over 50% in
the last year as individual classrooms and laboratories have benefited
from installation of interactive whiteboards and projectors linked
to the Internet.
Recruitment and retention of teachers
The need to maintain the recruitment of high
quality specialist teachers in the critical areas of maths and
science is highlighted in the report. Equally important, however,
is retention of these teachers. We are disappointed that the report
makes no mention of new initiatives to retain excellent subject
teachers in shortage subjects.
Subject knowledge and confidence of teachers
Opportunities for subject specific continuing
professional development (CPD) must be offered to all teachers
to develop their subject knowledge, especially in subjects such
as science where the speed of new discoveries and new theories
rapidly outstrips information in text books and other sources
of information.
We are concerned to read that recent research
by the Wellcome Trust indicates that subject based training is
less well valued than initiative focussed CPD and that half of
all secondary teachers surveyed had no subject related CPD in
the past five years. [122]
Our recent report, "Sustaining the Skills
Pipeline" identifies low levels of practical skills, and
opportunities for development of those skills, especially in areas
such as dissection of animals and animal tissues, as a particular
issue. Practical skills are essential for practising scientists,
and research carried out amongst ABPI member companies clearly
indicated a deterioration in these capabilities in new employees
in the UK compared to those recruited from other countries. We
believe that this decline in practical capability of students
stems from an overloaded school curriculum, and teachers who do
not feel sufficiently confident to allow students to carry out
experiments outside their speciality which involve any degree
of risk. We hope that the courses being run by the Training and
Development Agency for Schools (TDA) to enhance and extend subject
knowledge for trainee teachers in chemistry and physics will go
some way towards addressing this issue for new teachers, however
the needs of practising teachers must also be addressed.
We welcome the opening of the National Science
Learning Centre in York and network of regional Science Learning
Centres, and we hope that all science teachers will be encouraged
and supported by the government, and by their school or college,
to attend courses at one of the centres. We hope that subject
specific CPD will, in future years be an expectation for all teachers,
monitored at their annual appraisal, and will be a major route
towards increasing the confidence and expertise of those expected
to teach outside their area of specialisation, especially teachers
of chemistry, physics, maths and modern languages. One recommendation
of the ABPI report is that the Science Learning Centre network,
industry and teacher training institutes should work together
to develop and support courses to update and extend the practical
skills of teachers, and those training to be teachers, and help
them update their knowledge of cutting edge research. Courses
at Science Learning Centres could become credit based, leading
to a certificate which would recognise achievement in subject
specific CPD.
A particular issue is CPD for teachers of vocational
courses, not only the 14-19 diplomas, but also the existing Applied
GCSE and GCE courses. Many teachers of Applied Science in schools
have not had previous experience of industry and need help in
delivering the course. The recent introduction of SETNET Regional
Directors is an opportunity to encourage close links between schools
and colleges and local industry, although Science Learning Centres
also have a role to play in supporting teachers of Applied Science.
We applaud the Government's recommendation that
teachers should be encouraged to join their relevant subject association
and suggest that financial support should be made available to
encourage this.
121 "Sustaining the Skills Pipeline in the pharmaceutical
and biopharmaceutical industries" ABPI, November 2005 (http://www.abpi.org.uk//publications/pdfs/2005-STEM-Ed-skills-TF-Report.pdf) Back
122
"Science teachers matter" P Finegold, in Education
in Science, Association for Science Education, November 2005. Back
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