More than 17,000 people are employed by the top companies here and many more work in associated firms and industries. Multinationals continue to recruit graduates, the Higher Education Authority is investing 1.5bn in scientific research in the drive to create a fourth-level Ireland and points requirements for many science programmes are the lowest they have been in years.

To keep up with growth in the sector, many colleges and universities have adapted their programmes to suit the industry's needs. GalwayMayo Institute of Technology (IT) began offering a new chemical and pharmaceutical science degree this year.

National University of Ireland Maynooth offers chemistry with pharmaceutical science; University of Limerick offers pharmaceutical and industrial chemistry; and Dublin City University (DCU) offers a chemical and pharmaceutical science degree.

"The courses we offer here equip our students with the knowledge they need to work in any pharmaceutical company, " says Kieran Nolan, lecturer in the School of Chemical Sciences at DCU.

"We teach formulation and regulation, which are essential in the industry given that it operates in a regulated environment."

The analytical science degree at DCU takes an interdisciplinary approach to educating students in a way that is directly relevant to the industrial sector. The theoretical and practical aspects of chemical, biochemical and microbiological analysis are taught side by side. The university enjoys close links with the industry and the course includes a work placement.

"One of the reasons we changed our programme is that we have to supply the market with graduates, " says Nolan. "We tailormade our chemical programme for the pharmaceutical industry."

Meanwhile, the Institutes of Technology in Athlone, Sligo and Tallaght offer pharmaceutical science, while Limerick IT combines this with forensic analysis. Ireland's first pharmaceutical technology training centre was opened at IT Tallaght in 2002. Since then, the facility has provided the skills and training necessary for graduates to immediately enter the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

While courses are targeted at careers in the pharmaceutical industry, they are broad-based and graduates are employable in many other areas of industrial and scientific work. James Brennan, head of the department of applied sciences at IT Sligo, says opting for a pharmaceutical science degree will give students many options.

"By doing the pharmaceutical programme you're not making the decision to be a chemist or microbiologist.

You can choose at the end of it where you want to go and even then if you don't like the direction you've taken, you can change again, " he says.

A year before the centre opened in Tallaght, IT Sligo opened a pharmaceutical science centre, which is offered to local companies such as Abbott for process development work and staff training. Its establishment highlighted the institute's ability to provide students with top-level degrees.

IT Sligo has the biggest school of science of all the institutes, with more than 850 students. Its programme consists of a degree in pharmaceutical science (add-on), an ab initio degree and an honours degree.

The ab initio degree is a four-year, full-time course, designed to educate and train scientists for the pharmachemical industry. It is multidisciplinary, which means it includes science subjects and applied modules.

"The programme is very well regarded by industry and there are many job opportunities. The difficulty is selling it to second-level students. We're starting to bring the message to transition-year students, " says Brennan. You don't need to have studied chemistry at second level to do the pharmaceutical science degree.