Interview
Christophe Duret is General Manager at Novo Nordisk Scandinavia AB. He sees some new trends that will affect how companies prioritize training and development in the coming years. He also has some advice on how you, as an employee, can ensure an ongoing upgrade of your skills.
What trends do you see in training and development of employees in the life sciences?
At the very core, the fundamental requirements are still the same. Companies need to ensure their competitiveness, and for that, their employees need to constantly upgrade their competences. A key trend is the need to prepare for new external requirements, for example the implementation of the European Data Protection Regulation, or the establishment of the Danish Regions’ Medicine Council.
But it is not just new constraints, there are also new opportunities that companies would like to make use of and where they therefore need to upgrade their internal competences, for example regarding real world evidence studies. Companies will continue to use a mix of internal and external training and development, internal where they have the critical mass, and external when it gives them access to specialized expertise in a more effective way.
Do you think that the prioritizing of learning and development will change in the next five years?
Learning and development will for sure continue to be a priority in the coming years, driven by the need for remaining competitiveness and living up to new regulations. The specific needs for each function might evolve over time, but the necessity to learn and develop will continue.
If you were to give an employee advice on how to ensure an ongoing upgrade of their skills, what would it be?
You need to be proactive with your personal development, and address the upgrade of your skills with the same planning, determination and follow-up as you would with a business or project plan. And the most effective way is to combine external input that will offer new perspective or knowledge with on-the-job training where you will progressively build up your own experience.