Becoming A Pharmacy Technician

If you are interested in health and medicine and enjoy interacting with people, offering advice and assistance and making a real difference then you may be interested in working as a pharmacy technician.

A pharmacy technician works directly under the pharmacist and can supervise other staff such as pharmacy assistants, by preparing, administering and supplying medications.

The role of a pharmacy technician can be seen in a variety of health care settings which could entail working in any type of hospital. Examples are general hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and maternity hospitals. Other places could be working in a prison or youth offending establishment, local and high street pharmacies or even working within one of the many global pharmaceutical companies.

The job of a pharmacy technician is a varied and interesting role where no two days are the same. Tasks include selecting and preparing medications by weighing, counting and measuring them, checking prescriptions, liaising with other professionals and members of multi disciplinary teams, stock control, offering advice on how to take medications and warning of potential side effects, printing of correct labels and information documentation, spending time with customers and answering their queries as well offering over the counter medications.

As you can appreciate, you will be dealing with sensitive and confidential issues on a daily basis and therefore you will need to have superb communication and listening skills and be able to remain calm under pressure while working to deadlines. Your attention to detail should be meticulous and thorough and you must be able to demonstrate excellent organisational skills within the pharmaceutical setting.

Entry requirements can vary slightly depending upon the provider but generally, a minimum of four GCSE’s will be required which include mathematics, English language and science. To practise you will need to become accredited by the General Pharmaceutical Council. This can be done through an accredited two year course from the GPhC or an approved level 3 apprenticeship.

Once you have qualified, your career can take you on a variety of different pathways as there are many opportunities for advancement but you will be expected to be constantly updating both your knowledge and your skills which the GPhC oversees by a variety of assessments.