The Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences celebrates the Employment Forum of the Universitat de València on Friday 24 March after being cancelled past 4 November as a consequence of the DANA. The participation of over 40 companies and entities, as well as the access to job opportunities, is still expected for this new session.
Pushed forward by the Office of the Vice-Principal for Lifelong Learning, Educational Transformation and Employment, through UVjob and UV General Foundation, the Employment Forum of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences had as its main objectives to open the doors to new job opportunities for students, as well as connecting them with companies and institutions interested in getting to know the future professionals.
Thus, the session of the 24 March, which was postponed as a consequence of the 29-O dana, begun with panel discussions specialised in the career opportunities of the degrees offered by the Faculty: degree in Pharmacy and the Food Science studies.
Pharmaceutical industry, Microbiology and research
Aimed at the students of the Degree in Pharmacy, the first panel discussion brought together three professionals who graduated from the Universitat de València as role models of the profession beyond Hospital or Street Pharmacy, traditional career paths which are experienced during the curricular internships of the degree.
From Sandoz Pharmaceutical, Maria Rubio explained new professional development opportunities within the pharmaceutical industry, which is traditionally associated with marketing and product selection, such as the management, development, launch and supply of new production lines, as well as an “extraordinary” investment in the patient.
From the Hospital Universitario de La Ribera, doctor Virginia Pérez showed how Pharmacy studies allow for different specialisations; in her case, for example, in Microbiology. She highlighted: “We need a lot of microbiologists: we are the ones responsible of diagnosing fungal, viral or bacterial infections, we take part in the antibiotic national programme, and we research to fight against resistances with new drugs. Therefore, our job is a new challenge every day”. Access to these job vacancies is directly done through public examination to the FIR (Internal Resident Pharmacist).
Lastly, doctor Diana Vicente, clinical tests coordinator at the Health Research Institute Hospital La Fe of València, defended the importance of the pharmacists as public health agents, indicating the possible career paths in this context until getting to research, her occupation: Community Pharmacy, State Pharmacist, Education (university or secondary school teachers), Health labour exchange (primary care pharmacist, Health Administration and Public Health, and pharmaceutical inspector), and basic or pre-clinical research.
Catering, events, audit and innovation
The Food Sciences are composed of the degrees in Food Science and Technology, Gastronomic Sciences and Human Nutrition and Dietetics. At the panel discussion on job opportunities, four professionals who graduated from the Universitat de València intervened and, based on their experience, they narrated their introduction into the job market and how they grew professionally once inside the company.
Thus, the speakers who took part in this panel discussion were: Sara García de Noceda, dietitian and gourmet, who accessed the catering company Servalia as a dietitian to posteriorly move onto technical and management tasks; Mimi Petkova, who explained how, from Gastronomic Sciences, one can also work in event planning or kitchen management, which is vocational for her; Raúl Anquela, graduate in Food Science and Technology and current industrial quality auditor at Ferrero, with headquarters in Luxemburg, however, he has also worked as a laboratory analyst, technician and head of quality control, and he addresses other job opportunities that the degree has to offer: manager of quality control, food quality and security auditor or consultant and innovation and development technician; and Marta González, founder and CEO of the food innovation company Sigma Biotech: she is food technologist and nutritionist, and started this project well over 18 years ago in order to offer a private and personalised R+D+I service to food industries.
Language learning, stays either abroad or in other Spanish cities, continuous and specialised training (master's degree or doctoral thesis), attitude, values, social skills and professional competences are the characteristics all four of them agreed upon are key when searching for a job and growing professionally.
The training and information shared at these discussions was complemented with a workshop given bi the guidance technical staff of UVjob on how to manage Linkedin as well as the creation and positioning of a personal brand in order to open the doors to the job market.
Around 40 entities and over thirty job opportunities
Throughout the morning, the Faculty hall has gathered the stands of about 40 companies and entities, making up an employment forum focused on giving information about the most solicited profiles in the current labour market, specialised information on how to access over 30 job opportunities and internship, options to get keep on learning, either languages or in other fields, etc.
In this scene, the welcome act of the Forum took place. It was opened by Faculty Dean Hortensia Rico, who considered this event as the “UV and companies commitment with a solid future and full of opportunities for our students”, then UV Principal Maria Vicenta Mestre concluded the act highlighting the importance of the studies of this Faculty, dedicated to the health and quality of life fields, as well as the opportunities it brings to future professionals holding the Employment Forum, which was delayed due to the devastating consequences of the 29 October dana “because during those times we only had strength and spirit to help, to help each member of our community: students, teachers, researchers, technical staff, management and services... since the most important above all are us people, whom without the Universitat de València would not be number 1 as the international ranking show”, admitted the Principal.
Likewise, Maria Vicenta Mestre addressed the students present there to remind them that “you are the Universitat de València, you are what makes a Faculty out of this centre, and today we put within your reach this Forum so that you could decide about your future, one you can face with excitement and happiness”.
The Principal Maria Vicenta Mestre and the Dean Hortensia Rico visited the stands of the companies, entities, institutions and professional associations of the Forum, accompanied by the Vice-Principal for Lifelong Learning, Educational Transformation and Employment, Ángeles Solanes; the general manager of the UV General Foundation, Cristóbal Suria; the Dean team of the Faculty; and the Delegate of the Principal for Employment and Internships and work placements, Jesús Soret.
The Employment Forum also became a networking opportunity for students and companies alike, as they could access highly qualified profiles as well as gathering information of the pharmaceutical, nutritional, dietetic and catering industries directly from health and biomedical research foundations, laboratories, public administrations, NGOs, professional associations and business associations, and, last but not least, information for official master's degrees and university services.
Some of these entities are:
• Fundació València Activa of the Valencia City Council
• Labora. Valencian Service of Employment and Training
• Inserta Empleo of ONCE Foundation, for the labour inclusion of people with disabilities
• Ainia, private technology centre with more than 35 years of experience in R+D+I
• FarmaLevante, pharmaceutical counsulting
• Asociación Empresarial de Farmacéuticos de València (FARVAL), which works for the business and professional interests of the Oficinas de Farmacia de València
• FIRCOF-COFM, formative initiative of the Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Madrid
• The Valencian Pharmacists Association (MICOF)
• Talento-EPHOS, leader school of the health-pharmaceutical industry
Among the best employment rates of the Universitat de València
According to the last Study of Job Insertion of Degrees from the Universitat de València (people graduated in 2021), the UV maintains a high employment rate of 87%, and has experienced an important improvement of the main quality indicators. From the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences we can highlight the Double Degree in Pharmacy and Human Nutrition and Dietetics, which continues to have an employment rate and a quality adjustment of 100%.
The insertion studies, made by UVjob, can be consulted interactively through the app EstIL, and in the individualised reports that appear in the tab of labour insertion of each of the cards of the degrees. They are also published on the website of UVjob with wider and more detailed information about the labour insertion indicators of each degree.
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