Andhra Pradesh: Pharma firms train freshers to fill gap in skill development

Visakhapatnam: Pharmaceutical companies face a massive shortage of skilled manpower as the thousands of post-graduates that pass out each year don’t possess the necessary skill sets. Companies like Aurobindo and Laurus Labs are providing internal training to all the freshers to fill the gap in skill development. Aurobindo Pharma HR senior vice-president K. Suresh Kumar said the industry was suffering from a huge shortage of skilled workforce. “We are also facing the same issue. However, we have an apex training and development centre at Hyderabad to train freshers,” he said.

The company identifies people from suburban areas and trains them at this centre. “So far, 425 candidates have been trained here. Training is provided in three modules for four months. The trainees are paid a stipend and treated as company employees right from day one,” he said. Laurus Labs has a learning and development division for the training of fresh science graduates and postgraduates. It has tied up with Gitam in Visakhapatnam and Krishna University in Vijayawada.The company pays a stipend to MSc students for two years and asks them to join later.