618 Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research | Vol 56 | Issue 3 | Jul-Sep, 2022 Review Artcle www.ijper.org Design of Skill Enhancement Module for Pharmacy Students - Need of the Hour Shanthi Lysetty 1 , Siva Kumar Kannan 1 , Anup Naha 1, *, Usha Yogendra Nayak 1 , Virendra Ligade 2 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, INDIA. 2 Department of Pharmacy Management, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, INDIA. ABSTRACT Skill industries, such as manufacturing and services, are growing at a rapid rate. It is estimated that there is a huge demand for skilled employees in the future. But India’s skilled workforce is very low. The country is currently facing a dual dilemma of the extreme shortage of highly-trained, high-quality work yet as non-employment of large parts of educated people with very few or no job skills. The issue of skill development in India is so relevant to demand and supply levels. The pharmaceutical sector is developing at a rapid pace, but challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industries are outdated skilled workforce. This is due to the outdated curriculum followed in the majority of universities and lack of industrial exposure, limited industry interfaces, lack of appropriate skills and education. Thus there is a need to develop a skill development module and incorporate it as a training program. Total quality management and innovation ecosystem to be introduced in pharmacy to improve the current situation. This article emphasizes on skill gap requirements, developing skill modules for pharmacy students, design of a curriculum, introduction of practice school, various strategies and pedagogical techniques to be introduced to develop the skills of the students and make them ready for specialised job roles. Keywords: Skill, Curriculum, Design, Learning, Pharmacy education. DOI: 10.5530/ijper.56.3.110 Correspondence: Dr. Anup Naha Department of Pharmaceutics, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal-576104, Karnataka, INDIA. E-mail: anupnaha.mahe@ gmail.com Submission Date: 17-06-2021; Revision Date: 21-12-2021; Accepted Date: 23-05-2022. INTRODUCTION Skill development is vital for economic progress and social development. In the future, young people should acquire the required skills and education to be able to job ready in the workplace. The country is currently facing a dual dilemma of the extreme shortage of highly-trained, high- quality work, yet as non-employment of large parts of educated people with very few or no job skills. The issue of skill development in India is so relevant to demand and supply levels. Already enormous gap is there between the academia and requirement of the industries due to different reasons such as insuffcient training and infrastructure, lack of appropriate skills and education, outdated academic curricula, shortage of quality academics, limited industry interfaces, inadequate standards, etc. India is also facing a huge task of developing a skill development system that may train the workforce effectively to satisfy the requirements of the industries. The workforce must be trained at all levels, from the high-level specialised skills to the low-level skills, Moreover, these skills have to be effectively related to available job opportunities. The skill development system in India is concerned with several problems associated with sensitivity, knowledge, interpretation, price, quality and measure. 1 The Indian pharmaceutical sector is one of the most competitive, globally. It is crucial to identify and resolve its skilling challenges in time. The pharmaceutical sector is set to develop at a rapid pace. But the challenges lying ahead are many. One such area is the lack of updated skill sets among the workers