Advanced Therapies Skills Training Network

The Advanced Therapies field is experiencing rapid growth at present particularly in areas of cell, gene, viral vector, antibody and vaccine therapy. Based on the findings from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s (CGT Catapult) Skills Demand Survey 2019, 83% of ATMP and vaccine manufacturing companies raised concerns that the recruitment and retention of skilled talent would be an important issue which slows down or delays their forecasted manufacturing expansions. This has been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As such, a coherent national training offering for core manufacturing skills was requested by industry, in order to drive the required uptake of skilled talent at all levels and allow the UK sector to reach its full potential. The national ATSTN program was launched by the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult and was funded by InnovateUK and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The Scottish National Training Centre was launched in spring 2021.

ATSTN also includes an Online Training Platform to provide remote learning for those currently working in the vaccine manufacturing and advanced therapy industry, and a Career Converter, which maps an individual’s transferrable skills from adjacent sectors into recommended roles for this industry.

Please note, funding for this project ended in 2023.

Coordinating industry skills demand and training providers, we delivered high impact physical and digital training courses in advanced therapies and vaccine manufacturing.

Aimed at the current advanced therapies and vaccine manufacturing industry workforce, academics, and those enrolled in Further and Higher Education, our courses provided basic practical training in sterile manufacturing, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) within an industrial setting, and bioprocessing.