News
NIRAS Life Science Academy welcomes our first international graduate team with 12 young and recent graduates from United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark.
For the next two years, the 12 graduates of TEAM 7 will undergo a combined work and learning programme that gives them the best possible start to a career within the pharma/life science and food sectors.
August 11, 2022
The graduates gain learning partly by participating in 8 modules of one week duration each, and partly via the job as a junior consultant in the pharmaceutical or food industry. In addition, graduates are supported through a professional mentoring process and a personal development process with an external business coach.
Our first international team consists of graduates from three different countries.
This year we have put together a team that represents great professional diversity, which creates space for professional sparring, as well as supporting group dynamics and personal immersion.
In order to get the participants together and strengthen the collaboration, the team started the 2-year graduate programme with a 4‑day bootcamp.
At the bootcamp, personal development is emphasised and social skills are brought into play, when the graduates learn to interpret their own and others' behavior and communication styles, as well as giving constructive feedback. The graduates build a relationship of trust with each other through collaborative exercises, feedback sessions and individual reflections. They get to know their own reaction patterns when they have to solve tasks together, which require all types of personality profiles. The graduates must be able to listen, contribute and evaluate continuously in the processes when they are outside their own comfort zone.
Skills that are of great benefit when you, as a graduate, enter a company and start to work as a consultant. You must be able to collaborate with many different colleagues and often under a certain degree of pressure. As a rule of thumb, you develop the most when you are on the edge of your comfort zone. This is where you become aware of your own potential and that is the way to unfold your talent.
”It is important to move out of your own comfort zone and try something new. If you stay in the same place, you are actually moving backwards, as the rest of the world is constantly moving forward. Development is ongoing all the time, so you have to make sure that you update your knowledge continuously in order to be able to keep up,”
explains Wasim Saeed, who is a Bachelor of Engineering from DTU.
The bootcamp has been developed in collaboration with and is run by ILTI house. It is led by Jack Hindborg, who has been in both Slædepatruljen Sirius and Søværnets Frømandskorps. Competent instructors from ILTI house contributed to the bootcamp and the graduates were visited by several managers from NIRAS, HR, as well as NIRAS Life Science Academy.
However, the bootcamp is just one of the elements of the personal development during the graduate programme, which also includes mentoring, coaching and ongoing development interviews.
After the bootcamp, the graduates participated at the first module: GMP and quality understanding. The course gave them insights regarding the quality mindset which is the foundation for the production of pharmaceuticals and food.
Ahead of the graduates is an extensive learning program containing subjects within the pharma, life science and food industries. The graduates will quickly develop the required skills to be able to handle many of the responsibilities and tasks they have to solve as a consultant.
We look forward to guiding our graduates in their further journey and development.
Here are a few comments from some of the participants:
Noel Damborg, production engineer from DTU explains, ”Time has come to learn and reflect, but it was very intense. In fact, in just 4 days I managed to get to know my new colleagues better than many of my friends, whom I have known all my life.”
Gudrun Palsdottir, Cand. Polyt. Biotechnology from AAU states, ”It was like being thrown into deep water in a swimming pool and then the instructors and the other graduates stood on the edge ready to help you ashore if you were about to drown.”
If you also want to kick start your career, then follow NIRAS Life Science and NIRAS Food & Beverage on LinkedIn. Start-up date for the next team will be announced here plus a lot of other exciting content.
