Pharmaceutical major Lupin Limited expects to train over 1,000 undergraduates as pharma professionals by the year 2020 under a ‘Learn and Earn Initiative’ aligned with the Centre’s Skill Development mission.
The initiative is aimed at youngsters who have passed Class XII in the Science stream with a minimum of 50% marks, but are facing financial constraints. They are taken for a three-year-long course during which they are paid stipend and provided all the facilities.
“Since 2011, Lupin has helped create 560 graduates with 181 students passing out in 2018,” Yashwant Mahadik, president, global human resources at Lupin, said in Panaji last week.
“We expect to help graduate more than 1,000 students by 2020 adding to the manpower resource of the pharmaceutical sector,” Mr. Mahadik said adding that “most of these would be absorbed by Lupin.”
The curriculum, designed in concert with open universities such as Yashwantrao Chavan Maharastra Open University and Bhimrao Ambedkar University, confers graduates with a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry Education B.VOC. in Manufacturing Technology (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) after the successful completion of the three-year programme.
While training facilities are located in cities like Tarapur or Goa, efforts have been made to penetrate to the interiors in States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Sikkim and Goa through newspaper adverts, propaganda in colleges, distribution of flyers and pamphlets, and even personally meeting such families. These efforts are currently focussed around five of Lupin’s largest manufacturing hubs: Tarapur, Goa, Sikkim, Indore and Aurangabad.
The third batch of 181 students graduated through the initiative last week at a function held in Margao, Goa. Those who graduated were presented with a degree and an appointment letter for a job with Lupin. In 2014, the first batch of candidates under the program from Goa, Tarapur, Indore, and Aurangabad, was given appointment letters with their degrees. (The writer was in Goa at the invitation of Lupin Limited)
