Talents and Skills in Life Sciences and Health Technologies

At the beginning of 2020, Montréal InVivo, in partnership with the “Conseil emploi métropole” and “Pharmabio Développement”, carried out a training, skills and employment aligning diagnosis, bringing out 9 observations of the life science and health technologies employment situation. These findings are accompanied by directions that will assist recruitment in the LSHT sector.

Certainly the new period in which we are currently operating affects some of the findings of this study, but the COVID-19 crisis puts unknown jobs in the spotlight which have a major impact on the implementation of a solution against COVID-19 .

« This adequacy diagnosis will serve as a starting point for several concerted actions to ensure that the job market has a sufficient supply of qualified LSHT talent for the years to come. » 

Frank Béraud, CEO of Montréal InVivo 

Among the findings detected during the diagnosis, the lack of skills in technological knowledge, and talents with a hybrid profile between biological sciences and technology, was put forward. In addition, careers in data science such as bioinformaticians, computational biologists and biostatisticians were identified as an important future need within companies. Montréal InVivo in partnership with the Université de Montréal, Pharmabio Développement, Qualifications Québec and Cégep Ahuntsic are in the process of implementing training to remedy this situation. Indeed, thanks to funding obtained by the Pôle en Intelligence Artificielle (PIA) and the Conseil Emploi Métropole (CEM), the Continuum qualifying path project in bioinformatics and data science was born. This project offers an innovative training-job aligning solution that combines support and training on campus and in the workplace. The proposed project aims to meet the needs of businesses and build adequate training by identifying the essential skills for employment in data science in order to fill the gaps between the skills of the candidates and the needs identified by the host companies.

Thanks to the participants of the DACUM workshops

On the weekend of May 22th, ten professionals in bioinformatics, computational biology and biostatistics took part in a series of exercises to create a common core of skills for these types of jobs. Their hard work is a good foundation for the Continuum project.  Thank you all for your participation!

In order to validate the skills identified by these experts, we are looking for people from the sector to validate the results. The validation will take place on June 18 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Is your company planning to hire data scientists in the next year?

We would like to hear your opinion on the formula of this innovative training, in order to meet your needs.

If you have information that you would like to share with us regarding jobs and talent development in the life sciences, contact Claudie Noel to let her know.