The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has launched a plan to help encourage young scientists to consider a career in STEM.

Coinciding with International Women’s Day (IWD), the ABPI is focusing on how the pharmaceutical sector can encourage more young women to consider STEM careers.

With a theme this year of #PressforProgress, IWD celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

The ABPI’s lesson plan includes practical objectives and challenges for stage 3, 4 and 5 classes. The lesson plan uses examples of famous female scientists through history including Marie Curie – the first woman to win a Nobel prize – and Jane Goodall, the famous primatologist.

The plan is being made available to teachers and school leaders through the ABPI website and through Tes, a resource hub for teaching materials. The plan comes as the ABPI works across bioscience, government and academia to address the skills shortages in areas such as maths, bioinformatics, statistics, data and informatics, computational skills, and translational medicine and clinical pharmacology.

Andrew Croydon, Head of Education at the ABPI, said:

“Our industry is dedicated to improving patients’ lives with innovative and life-changing medicines. We want to inspire and encourage the next generation of female leaders in STEM who could pursue a career which pushes back the boundaries of medical science, and hope this lesson plan – with inspiring stories of famous female scientists – is the first step towards empowering more young girls into STEM careers.”