This is mirrored in other third level institutions across the country. Other longer established "academic" universities have begun to facilitate work placements during the summer holidays to bridge the work gap.

A student placement offers lots of mutual advantages:

Firstly, students can demonstrate their theoretical knowledge and skills to top employers as well as gaining practical experience over an extended period themselves.

This experience can afford them an excellent start in the job market after graduation.

In addition, students earn some extra money while they study and eliminate the need to seek lower paid casual employment over the summer months.

These interactions with industry will help to equip the students with significant industrial experience and professional skills to bolster their CV and open up a wider range of employment opportunities. Many internship employers also offer positions to students immediately after completion of their degree programme. The internship advantage will become increasingly important as the job market tightens and the competition for graduate places increases.

This advantage is common to most scientific and engineering areas but within the pharmaceutical industry in particular graduates with six to nine months industrial experience find it much easier when they are starting out.

Alexandra Schmatz from Sigmar Recruitment has observed this trend at first hand. "Graduates from an analytical science background who have undertaken a work placement with a pharmaceutical company have often unwittingly gained quality standard and regulatory exposure which then proves invaluable gaining employment as a graduate, " she said.

The prospects within pharmaceuticals in Ireland are very high at the moment.

Ireland is one of the leading locations for the pharmaceutical industry in Europe and is a very attractive employer for graduates. One hundred and twenty overseas companies have operations in Ireland including 14 of the 15 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

These include Pfizer, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, Schering Plough, BristolMyers Squibb, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Glaxo Smith-Kline and Takeda.

Pharmaceutical companies are equally eager to hire foreign graduates with industrial experience in a highly regulated environment.

These high quality graduates have been attracted by the excellent opportunities available within the industry in Ireland.

The pharmaceutical industry has become the country's biggest exporter and one of its major employers. In the past 10 years, employment in the pharmachem industry has increased by more than 50%. The sector now employs more than 24,000 people, and more than half of these are third-level graduates with many coming from abroad.

"Up to 30% of entry level graduates with analytical science backgrounds are coming from other EU countries such as Poland, Spain, Italy or Germany, " suggested Schmatz. . Additionally, it is a relatively "safe" business due to the fact that research & development and production of pharmaceuticals is a high value add activity. This contrasts with lower end manufacturing that can more readily migrate to lower cost countries in Eastern Europe and the Far East. This type of more manual manufacturing has largely already undergone this transition."

When students are choosing a career path they should bear in mind that pharmaceutical industry is flourishing in Ireland . . . as well as abroad. So even if there is a slight shift towards lower cost centres this is likely to be over an extended period and in a trickle as opposed to a flood. Third Level scientific students are well advised to undertake an internship or summer placement with a pharmaceutical company in order to make their transition to full-time career as straight forward and painless as possible. This effort will be well rewarded as the industry offers great longterm prospects.