Modern pharmaceutical production involves many complex operations and meticulous quality control, so the requirements for staff qualifications are very high. The development of production sites must go hand in hand with the training of high-class specialists. They need to have not only deep theoretical knowledge but also practical skills in working with equipment, as well as the ability to control technological processes.
Furthermore, a specialist needs to work well within a team, know the personnel conduct regulations at pharmaceutical production facilities in line with GMP standards, and adhere to them without exception.
Currently, young specialists demonstrate a high level of theoretical training. However, college graduates often have better-developed practical skills than university graduates.
This is precisely why continuous educational projects starting from school come to the fore. An infrastructure is under development to equip future industry specialists with practical experience in conditions nearly identical to real-world environments. An infrastructure is being created to train the industry’s future specialists, which allows them to practise the acquired knowledge in conditions as close as possible to real ones. Among other things, VR technologies are used. Strengthening of ties between business and government institutions is underway, along with a greater focus on specialized training efforts.
R-Pharm has been consistently applying this approach for an extended period. We build cooperation with universities, colleges, and schools, and participate in federal initiatives. We maintain ongoing partnerships with over 50 educational organizations, which allows us to develop specialists for the specialized requirements of our business.
Let me give some examples. In September 2024, the eighth cohort of our pharmaceutical program for schoolchildren in Yaroslavl started their course. They study chemistry and natural science subjects in depth with educators from the region’s leading universities and colleges, and they undergo internships in laboratories. A special feature of the program is additional general education tracks: fundamentals of analytical chemistry, additional chapters of organic chemistry, fundamentals of microbiology, etc. In total, the pharmaceutical class has seen the graduation of more than 200 children during the project’s timeline.
We also hold specialised sessions at the All-Russian Children’s Center Smena in Anapa and the educational center Sirius, festivals and competitions within the framework of the regional project Pharmstart, and we provide support for Science Olympiads and school conferences. More than 5 million schoolchildren have participated in our programmes. Early career counseling supports a thoughtful approach to choosing a profession and helps define the course of future education.
An important element of this system is the work with universities and vocational colleges. Together with the Yaroslavl Industrial and Economic College, within the framework of the federal project Professional Education, we launched the Biopharmaceutical Production training centre. Here, vocational college and university students master all processes of biotechnological production — from culturing a cell line to purification and scaling, and they also learn the rules of behaviour in clean zones. The centre is a model of a real production site and has advanced equipment.
Annually, more than 350 people undergo training at the centre. After training, students do internships at the sites of the R-Pharm group. The best of them become our employees.
We also enter into employer-sponsored education agreements with universities. Today, more than 35 students are studying under such agreements; in 2025, we employed the first graduates of the employer-sponsored programs. To immerse students even deeper into the company’s work processes, we organize practical placements and internships at our production sites.
In personnel training, as in all other areas, we follow current trends, including digitalization. Our training program now incorporates VR technology, allowing trainees to simulate working in pharmaceutical manufacturing in a virtual setting. The program provides training in operations such as thawing a cell culture, primary seeding, scaling, preparing a bioreactor in biotechnological production, and operating machines and other equipment in pharmaceutical facilities. Both training and skills assessment can be conducted using the VR system.
This is how we build a global, comprehensive system of specialized education, from early career guidance to student internships at pharmaceutical production facilities.
Thanks to this system, we can train highly qualified specialists capable of solving current tasks not only for one enterprise but for the industry as a whole. We are convinced that systemically important companies bear responsibility for the future of the domestic industry and its ability to respond to the challenges of the time, and that personnel training is the most important investment in the sustainable development of the industry.
