Why medicines manufacturing matters to UK growth
14 May 2025
The growth of the UK economy is critically dependent on a thriving, globally relevant medicines manufacturing sector driven by a highly skilled workforce. RESILIENCE has developed a growth strategy for the UK biopharmaceutical market that provides relevant skills for the rapidly increasing future job opportunities in this life science business area.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is a key facet of the Life Science sector, responsible for £19.2 billion out of £43.3 billion of the gross value added contribution made to the UK economy by Life Science assets in 2021 (Source: PWC). Projections for the advanced pharmaceuticals market indicated that by 2026, cell and gene therapy jobs will increase by 117% compared to 2021 and bioprocessing jobs are predicted to rise by 151% (Source: ABPI). RESILIENCE will support the training requirements for advanced technical skills that will be needed to ensure that the careers pipeline for those anticipated developments is within the reach of future generations.
Delivery that delivers
The RESILIENCE centre works with regional training providers to support the UK life sciences workforce by delivering high quality training and STEM outreach, for a wide range of careers that includes roles in industry, academia, and the NHS. One of the key approaches for supporting industry is developing hands-on laboratory courses for upstream bioprocess engineering. RESILIENCE centres at UCL, University of Birmingham, Teesside University, and Heriot Watt University provide courses in key analytical techniques and platform technologies for upstream and downstream bioprocess engineering. Courses are enhanced by membership models for industry that provide access to educational events, materials (careers videos, lectures, webinars, activity workbooks), and tools (virtual reality hardware and software).
Courses are enhanced by membership models that provide access to educational events, materials and VR tools
A recent ‘Cell Culture and Analysis’ course delivered at UCL for example, was attended by individuals from FujiFilm and GSK who enrolled to acquire skills in mammalian cell culture to progress from bacterial fermentation roles and to expand beyond an organic chemistry background respectively. The course delegates engaged extremely well with this course. Their feedback included:
“The course exceeded my expectation in terms of exposure to industry (via the excellent talks on day 3), and the quality of reference materials provided, including tutorials for cell assay analysis and image analysis.”
“As I am moving on from a lab position in chemistry, this course will benefit me in searching for my next position by adding exposure to a sought-after skill to my resume, cementing the importance of continued and focused training at every stage of a career, and giving me context for the wide array of bioscience careers.”
See you in Cheltenham?
This example of industrially relevant engagement with RESILIENCE training is just one instance of a consistent pattern across the UK Centres which are part of the initiative.
At the forthcoming Cheltenham Science Festival (running from 3rd to 8th June) a team from across the RESILIENCE centres will be working with Innovation Hubs/Life Arc/MRC to apply interactive approaches to informing schools and students about the various career paths offered in medicines manufacturing. We’d love to see you there!