New Youth Advisory Council to help shape the future of the pharmaceutical industry

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has today launched its first-ever Youth Advisory Council, a new advisory body made up of young people aged 16 to 19 from across the UK, tasked with challenging and shaping how the pharmaceutical industry inspires, engages and communicates with the next generation.

The Youth Advisory Council has been formed following ABPI's research report, ‘Engaging with Gen Z: cultivating a diverse talent pipeline’, which explored how young people engage with careers information and the factors that shape their choices [1] [2].

The report called on the industry to move beyond polished corporate messaging towards more authentic, ongoing engagement led by young people and found that Gen Z want to be taken seriously and have their voices heard.

To reflect the diversity of the UK's young people, the Council’s members span a range of genders, educational stages, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic circumstances, levels of prior interest in the sector, and geographic locations - including areas with little existing pharmaceutical industry presence.

Andrew Croydon, ABPI Director of Education and Examination Policy & Partnerships, said: “Our Gen Z research told us that young people want to be part of a conversation with industry, and so our Youth Advisory Council puts that into practice. These 12 young advisers will have the opportunity to shape how our industry communicates, recruits and builds trust with their generation.”

Hadia Iqbal, representing the Youth Advisory Council, said: “As a Council, we’re looking forward to making sure young people’s views are represented, not just as a box-ticking exercise, but as a genuine part of how the pharmaceutical industry talks to people our age. We want to help cut through the confusion and mistrust that young people may feel about the industry and show what’s really possible in these careers.”

The Youth Advisory Council will be a standing advisory body to the ABPI. Members will work with the ABPI over the course of the year through structured workshops, starting with sessions on mis- and disinformation in health. Insights from these workshops will feed directly into the ABPI's communications strategy, careers content and guidance for member companies.