‘It seemed that even though I had a third level qualification in life sciences the move from ‘student’ to ‘employee’ was a difficult one. Experience and familiarity with pharmaceutical processes was always a sticking point [I believe] in my not getting to interview stage or, when interview stage was reached, not progressing to employment. It seemed the companies wanted ‘hit-the-ground-running’ employees who would need little in-house training. I can understand why. Training is expensive and when training you’re not ‘productive’ or contributing to the bottom line. So I began looking at ways of improving my job prospects – in other words my marketability.

I saw the Pharmaceutical Process Operator course advertised and decided to apply. In reality and being honest, I took the course to help me market myself and get the job I wanted. If I had that something extra that perhaps other applicants didn’t have and I’d taken the time to go and get those extra skills, I hoped that would show my interest in the sector and help get interviews and then a job.

I applied to Niche Generics [www.nichegenerics.com] before the course ended and began work 2 days after the course finished! I remember when the production supervisor was showing me around [before I was offered the position]. He was impressed with my knowledge of the equipment he was showing me. I was kind of impressed myself! It was good to see the equipment we’d seen in the lessons we’d studied now working in practice and I did feel like I could actually ‘work’ this equipment – It felt familiar to me too'.

'Well, I had the same problem as Stephen in terms of being on the job market for an extended period but my ‘time’ was even more prolonged. I didn’t have a formal qualification in any sector to help me get employment. It was really nerve wracking because I was also in a situation where I was quite a bit older, or at least I thought I was, than other job seekers. I hadn’t been to school for quite some time, [he laughs], so the thought of doing a course and training in a completely new sector was one that took some consideration and a lot of courage.

I was amazed though. The lessons didn’t jump in and throw out formulas, x’s and y’s and lots of maths which I thought might be the case as it was a ‘science’ based course. Each lesson described in plain English a process, how it works, why it exists, things you need to look out for, etc. It was really encouraging after the first day. I didn’t feel out of place and having a mentor in the class was a huge help. If you were unsure of something you could ask or discuss in more detail or just learn from someone else’s questions and answers.

Because the course is delivered online, it is really easy to take a keyword or lesson topic and ‘Google’ it to find out a little more and the mentor often asked us to go and find out what the Web said about a particular subject. We’d go to manufacturers’ websites and read about the latest model ‘tablet press’ or ‘rotary pump’ – things like that. Actually, when I was being shown around the production facility at Niche I recognized one of the machines from one of those searches. Was kind of cool when you see what you’ve learned sitting in front of you. I made a point of telling the supervisor. I think that worked for me.

The mentor was also helpful in giving advice for interviews, etc. Make everything sound like it’s a benefit. My age was going against me so the mentor told me to turn it around and make it a positive – ‘I’m here for the long term – I’m not here for a few months and then moving on’. I got the job so I guess that worked.

I know I’m here because of the course'.