EU looks at India for qualified personnel in medical & bio-pharma engineering space

European Union is facing a challenge in terms of qualified specialists in the life sciences space which covers medical and bio-pharma engineering sector. TeamLease, India’s largest temporary staffing major is associated with companies based in India to hire talent for their international locations or subsidiaries. Now the company would chip in its expertise to tap professionals willing for international exposure. The region is facing a huge talent crunch in the skilled workers category. It is faced with the risk of being left behind while competing with global powers in the field of science and technology due to the lack of diversified talent. Many corporations are not able to take the growth initiatives forward due to lack of talent availability. The European Commission has stated that the region needs millions of skilled migrants by 2050 to remain competitive. The inflow of students in science and technology is falling at an alarming rate, Hussain Tinwala, general manager, TeamLease Services, told Pharmabiz. There are several immigration policies which make it tough for companies to hire non- EU skilled workers. It also creates a challenge for corporations seeking employee transfers to attract talent. But in order to ease the access of Indian employees into the EU, there is a blue card initiative and a free trade agreement proposed, he added. The employment cap is not sufficient for meeting the talent scarcity. Few countries are looking at reducing the migration cap to protect jobs for locals. This has been highly criticized by the corporations as it restricts them in hiring skilled labour thus restricting their recovery from an economic slowdown. Apart from hiring direct talent, companies offer job rotational policies within their Indian subsidiaries to attract talent. Communication skills and sound technical expertise available at a competitive cost compared to local employees are the convincing factors to hire Indian talent. “From an Indian perspective, factors which make global opportunities attractive to work in the EU are international exposure, work environment, quality of life and monetary benefits,” said Tinwala. There are many EU chemical industries and medical companies driving business in India. Chemical majors include  BASF, Hoechst, Bayer, Syngenta, Evonik, Linde and Lanxess. Among the medical technology and pharma companies are Widex, Siemens, Philips and Novo Nordisk. Initially companies send trainees or employees for an induction and training to the headquarter locations. The idea was to clone either a German or Swiss or Danish technology in India. Of late, companies are facing a huge talent crunch. With experience of dealing with Indian professionals and with EU companies doing well here, there is considerable interest to look for qualified professionals from here. But the flip side would be that  India would soon face a challenge and scarcity of skilled personnel with growing demand from the EU when a  reverse brain drain strategy is being adopted by my many domestic majors here, stated Tinwala. Source:Pharmabiz