Biocon sets up its own academy to develop industry-ready talent

Biocon sets up its own academy to develop industry-ready talentBiocon, one of the leading biopharmaceutical giants in India, has set up an academy of its own to train and develop industry-ready talent for the country's fast-growing biotech industry.

The Biocon Academy has tied up with California-based Keck Graduate Institute a 4-month full-time certificate program in Biosciences. Enrollment for the program, which will be a blend of theory and hands-on project training, has already begun.

The program in Biosciences will cost around Rs 6 lakh per student, but Biocon will bring the cost down to Rs 1.5 lakh by offering huge scholarships.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of the Bangalore-based biotechnology firm, said, "We will offer a merit scholarship of 75% of the course fee for all students selected through an intensive selection process."

India's $11-billion biotech industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, and it is expected to surpass revenues of $100 billion over the next decade.

But, lack of industry-ready graduates is one of the biggest problems that have been getting in the industry's way to advancement. There are more than 700 biotech institutes that produce nearly 40,000 graduates per year, but the industry says that only 5 per cent of these graduates are employable.

The Biocon Academy, which will incur expenditure of around Rs 10 crore per annum, is now expected to alleviate the problem by providing the industry with much-needed talent.