ABLE and Aspiring Minds Join Hands to Evaluate Biotech Talent Potential

New Delhi, September 2, 2013: In its endeavor to meet the requirement of the biotechnology sector, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) along with Aspiring Minds launched AMCAT ABLE Life Sciences Certification program, an online testing tool to evaluate the employability quotient of students aspiring to work for the Biotech industry. With the aim of bringing up an inclusive employability platform for the Indian youth, this platform assesses the aspirant’s language, cognitive, personality and functional skills important for the BioTech industry. AMCAT ABLE Life Sciences Certification test shall be conducted by Aspiring Minds on the premises of colleges offering graduate and post-graduate courses in science, pharmacy and bio technology. Also, Aspiring Minds’ 60+ centers across India will offer the certification to aspirants. AMCAT is India’s Largest Employability Test catering to the IT, ITeS, BFSI, Retail, Hospitality and Manufacturing Industry. This association with a reputed body like ABLE shall help extend AMCAT’s success to the BioTech industry as well.

Human resources constitute an increasingly critical function in any biotechnology company. Whatever the changing fortunes of the biotechnology industry are, successful management of human resources is essential. The Indian biotech industry is facing a scarce talent pool and ABLE is in the process of bridging this gap through various methods. “The Indian biotechnology sector is one of the fastest growing knowledge-based sectors in India and is expected to play a key role in shaping India's rapidly developing economy. With numerous comparative advantages in terms of research and development (R&D) facilities, knowledge, skills, and cost effectiveness, the biotechnology industry in India has immense potential to emerge as a global key player. This evaluation test is a first of its kind program in the biotechnology sector and ABLE is proud to announce this initiative as part of its commitment towards improving biotechnology landscape in India,” said Dr PM Murali, President – Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprise (ABLE).

The biotechnology education industry is a relatively young industry with lack of awareness of industry needs. The academic spectrum is wide with tens of thousands of students being trained in several life science courses each year. However, lack of awareness and educated guidance is coming in the path of employability of these students. National level certifications can help in this regard by enabling awareness and access to a certified pool to the industry. There is a huge need of standardized automated assessments to be built and deployed in the industry. According to Himanshu Aggarwal, CEO – Aspiring Minds, “We assess students on their employability across India through our flagship test, AMCAT. AMCAT ABLE Life Sciences Certification shall extend that platform and aid in showcasing Employable Talent to the industry for different roles and functions. AMCAT’s comprehensive Employability Report shall go a long way in helping Biotech aspirants understand their strengths and areas of improvements in their quest to work for the booming Biotech industry in India.”

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD - Biocon, congratulated ABLE & Aspiring Minds and said: “The biotechnology sector in India has the potential to address several challenges faced by our country. Currently at US$ 5 billion, the Indian biotech sector is expected to grow to US$ 100 billion by 2025. However this transformation to a bio-economy can be enabled only through good quality talent and AMCAT ABLE Life Sciences certification program is expected to develop ‘industry ready’ biotech professionals who can partake in this exciting journey. I am sure the industry will benefit with the new initiative as it will improve access to employable biotech professionals.”

ABLE alongwith government agencies and others have launched several initiatives over the past years to assist in eliminating the gap between industry, academia and Government, which is hampering the growth of the industry. ABLE has begun nurturing young entrepreneurs through NEST and BEST programmes for students, in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology, which is yielding good results.

About ABLE
Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises - ABLE is a not-for-profit pan-India forum that represents the Indian Biotechnology Sector. It was launched in April 2003, after industry leaders felt a need to form an exclusive forum to represent the Indian Biotechnology Sector. It has over 270 members from all across India representing all verticals of the sector like agribiotech, bio-pharma, industrial biotech, bioinformatics, investment banks and Venture Capital firms, leading research and academic institutes and law firms and equipment suppliers. The primary focus of ABLE is to accelerate the pace of growth of the Biotechnology sector in India, through partnering with the Government in their biotechnology initiatives to deliver optimal policies and create a positive regulatory environment, encouraging entrepreneurship and investment in the sector, providing a platform for domestic and overseas companies to explore collaboration and partnerships, forging stronger links between academia and industry and showcasing the strengths of the Indian biotech sector. In the past decade ABLE has played a significant role in catalyzing the growth of the biotech industry by facilitating advocacy, collaboration, investment and encouraging entrepreneurship. Some of the milestones that ABLE has achieved are those related to Dr.Mashelkar Committee report on recombinant product, Innovative programs of the DST viz. BIRAP and BIPP , Vision document for the Indian Biotech industry, Roadmap for the biotech Industry, building the Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Students team (BEST) and North East Life Science Entrepreneurship (NEST) programs, the BioInvest Program and the International promotion of Brand India through organizing the India Pavilion in various BIO Shows.

About Aspiring Minds:
Aspiring Minds is India’s leading employability solutions company, headquartered in Gurgaon. Aspiring Minds offers scientific assessments with an innovative large-scale sourcing model analogous to a GRE-for-job concept. The state-of-the-art assessment tools developed by Aspiring Minds have been used across industry verticals to help recruit the right people, develop profile-wise employability benchmarks and assess workforce health. Aspiring Minds’ intelligent adaptive assessments span across Language, Cognitive skills, Domain knowledge and Personality. A strong in-house research and development team with alumni from IITs and MIT form the development back bone of the patent pending assessment tools. AMCAT™ - the flagship product is India’s Largest Employability Test. Conducted across the country throughout the year, AMCAT has been taken by over 1 million candidates in over 2500 college campuses, spread across 25 states. Tens of thousands of candidates secure their dream jobs every year through AMCAT. Powered by a highly dedicated management team drawn from the IITs and IIMs, over 225 full-time employees, and a pan-India operational presence, Aspiring Minds has helped leading brands across verticals to improve their recruitment process efficiency and the quality of talent they hire. Aspiring Minds today works with more than 300 corporations companies including Genpact, HCL, Honeywell, GE, Sapient, Deloitte, Accenture, Wipro, HDFC, AXIS Bank, etc.

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This release was published on openPR.