From Novice to Expert: An examination into how a novice engineer within the pharmaceutical engineering industry gains the skills and acknowledgement of their abilities by other industry experts?

Abstract

Grundlaget for denne afhandling er, at søge at afdække hvorledes en nyuddannet ingeniør indenfor den farmaceutiske industri kan udvikle sig fra at være nyuddannet til at blive anerkendt som en ekspert indenfor deres respektive område. De bliver i så fald også anerkendt som en ’Specialiseret Marketing Ekspert’ (efterfølgende ’SMEs’). Dermed ønskes det, at undersøge hvilken rolle ’SMEs’ har, samt hvorledes deres karrierer har udviklet sig, dels professionelt, dels i videreuddannelse i deres respektive kompetenceområder grundet titlen som ’SMEs’. Nysgerrigheden i dette emne kom efter samtaler, samt deltagelse i diverse samarbejdsprojekter med nogle af verdens ledende farmaceutiske firmaer.Det blev ligeledes klart at nogle af disse firmaer blev meget interesserede i denne undersøgelse, dog blev det ligeledes tydeligt at en evt. undersøgelse blev vanskelig grundet måden jobs blev skabt, samt ansættelses procedurer. Det ville derfor være spændende, hvis ’Pandoras Æske’ kan åbnes og derfor denne afhandling. De indledende undersøgelser endte med et tæt samarbejde med ” Nordich Affiliate of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers” (efterfølgende ISPE) for dermed at sikre at kun medlemmer af ISPE vil have adgang til de akademiske informationer som er tilgængelige via ISPE. Der er foretaget en kvalitativ undersøgelse baseret på empirisk information via indsamling af interviews med ingeniører og ISPE administratorer. Det blev besluttet at bruge elementer fra ’Actor Artwork Theory and the Social Constructial Therory the Orgy’ som et værktøj til at udvide forståelsen af de underliggende strukturer i forhold til de farmaceutiske ingeniører og administratorer.

This research study sets out to examine how novice engineers in the pharmaceutical engineering industry may transit to be recognised as experts in their field (commonly termed as either 'subject matter experts'/'specialised market experts' – SMEs). This researcher examines the role of SMEs, their career path that enabled their professional development, and their professional education. This author interest in the subject was initiated after framing and conducting several collaboration projects with some of the World's leading consulting pharmaceutical engineering companies, during which this author's desire to make a contribution to the work of these companies was ignited – which was very soon stalled by the obscurity of the job creation, recruitment, and development process. It was a desire by this author to unpack this 'black box' that led to this study. This author very early enquiries, combined with previous professional encounters, led to a close alignment with the Nordic Affiliate of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) as a method to secure access to career pharmaceutical engineers and information resources that was only available to ISPE members. This author conducted qualitative research, based on Grounded Theory, in order to analyze the empirical data gathered in the interviews that were conducted with the engineers and ISPE administrators. It was decided to use elements of Actor Network Theory and the Social Construction of Technology theory as tools to gain a more detailed understanding of the underlying structural issues encountered by the pharmaceutical engineers and administrators.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

From Novice to Expert: An examination into how a novice engineer within the pharmaceutical engineering industry gains the skills and acknowledgement of their abilities by other industry experts?

[Fra Novice til Ekspert: En undersøgelse i hvordan noviceingeniører inden for medicinel-ingeniørindustrien opnår færdigheder og anerkendelse af deres evner af andre brancheeksperter?]