CP Academies – Celebrating the successful 10th Course for graduates!
From its humble innovative beginnings back in 2014 and the two pilot courses in 2015, our CP Academies has recently completed its 10th training course for graduates, with 10 of our future stars coming through with flying colours! It has been great to see such a diverse mix of people and backgrounds again, and observing those who make it from the initial 400 hopeful applicants through a rigorous assessment process in order to secure a place on the final programme. The programme itself consists of online pre-course modules, daily homework assignments and continuous tests throughout the classroom training, before finishing with an exam and a final presentation.
Having been trained by our in-house industry experts, the prospective candidates are now equipped with the knowledge of the basics of clinical trials required to enter their first role in industry and ready to add value to the businesses they join.
Topics include:
- Understanding all the people;
- Places and processes involved in a clinical trial;
- Why and how trials have developed over the years including significant events;
- Lifecycle and development of a compound;
- Trial design;
- Protocols;
- Ethics;
- ICH GCP guidelines;
- Regulatory affairs;
- Importance of patient centricity;
- Recruitment and retention;
- Informed consent process;
- How to put a TMF together;
- Patient safety;
- Insourcing and outsourcing of trials;
- Audits and inspections.
We also ensure they have a fantastic CV and are prepared for interviews through face-to-face coaching with our recruitment experts.
Over the past three years, our graduates have successfully gained a variety of roles relating to clinical trial within different organisations, contributing to clinical research within the UK. With an increase in collaboration between industry, Academia and the NHS, we have also detected a steep uptake from this sector over 2017, often with our ‘employed contractor model’ saving large costs in these areas, but also helping with headcount limited by funding timelines. We can foresee more roles potentially coming through in the data science/analytics and medical technology sectors, as the industry (and world) continues to change over the next few years. As a company, we track these changes and growth in different areas and ensure we update our course each time to reflect this, so our graduates are best prepared for the changing global trial landscape and understand the complexities of different organisations.
To date we have secured 87 roles for our graduates over only 2 years; more than any large pharma or CRO business does in a year – not bad for a relatively small company with big dreams of making some positive changes in our sector. We’ve seen the skills shortage continue to rise, with government and business failing to work together to solve this escalating issue, so we are the driver to create this supply of talent, and are hugely proud of what has been achieved thus far, but there is still so much we can do.
Furthermore, we have a retention rate of 92% over 2 years for our graduates – happy people, in good jobs, developing great skills; again, far higher than experienced candidates of 2 years+. We’re proving that the UK life science graduates add value, and are cost-effective, and that industry MUST invest into their future, and at a far higher rate, for us to achieve our Life Science Strategy and remain a world leader in running clinical trials.
However, don’t just take our word for it. Speak to any of our clients who have taken on new talent, or any of the graduates who have started their first step on the ladder, and all will talk about the purely positive outcomes and hope for the future.
“The Graduate Academy that has been developed and run by clinical professionals offers a unique way of developing the future staff that will be supporting and delivering research in the UK for the Pharmaceutical Industry and Academia. The 2 staff we contracted fresh from completing the academy were able to hit the ground running within our team, they understood the jargon and acronyms associated to running studies, and on a plus note were also GCP trained and had an understanding of the regulatory requirements of the UK.” Commercial Trials Manager
Beyond this we ‘trailblaze’ with other forward-thinking organisations, as working groups dedicated to putting together standards and end point assessments as part of the Apprentice Levy. This again is paramount to ensuring our future talent in industry and continuing to fulfil the requirements of companies working on clinical trials in the UK.
If you are a client wanting to find out more and get involved in this ground-breaking scheme please contact us today. If you are a Life Sciences graduate keen to hear about career options and find out more then also get in touch: