Calibration and chromatography: customising cadetships in applied biotechnology

This paper examines and analyses the attitudes of cadets, industry mentors and vocational educators to a recently implemented, high-level Cadetship scheme. Funded by the Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts, the cadetships were awarded to both experienced, existing workers in industry and recent science graduates to work in a variety of pharmaceutical and applied biotechnology workplaces. The cadets were simultaneously enrolled in a Vocational Graduate Certificate (VGC) in Applied Biotechnology, delivered in intensive mode, and supported by vocational reinforcement and mentorship supplied by industry. The initiative was developed in response to a call for high-level cadetships in the Queensland Skills Plan. It also emerged from the perceived greater spirit of co-operation between stakeholders generated by the skills formation strategy that was the Queensland Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Industry Forum (QPNIF). The Cadetship/VGC model was designed in response to requests from stakeholders for advanced training in instrumentation and regulatory compliance in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and applied biotechnology. Such a model was required to meet the gap between university training and a new graduate's preparedness to perform in the workplace. The paper assembles attitudes and appraisals of the effectiveness of the Cadetship/VGC model to date from a sampling of stakeholders.

Published abstract.

A list of the presentations from this conference may be found at TD/TNC 93.551; available papers are indexed from TD/TNC 93.552 to TD/TNC 93.571. Show less