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Pharmacy support worker
How to become a pharmacy technician
You can become a pharmacy technician in Scotland by completing the Technical Apprenticeship in Pharmacy Services at SCQF level 8.
What is a pharmacy technician?
Pharmacy technicians are registered healthcare professionals who carry out specialised tasks, such as preparing and dispensing complex medicines for patients. They also help people safely take and store their medicines and provide healthcare advice.
Starting your career as a pharmacy technician
Choosing subjects at school
To apply for the Technical Apprenticeship in Pharmacy Services that would lead to a career as a registered pharmacy technician, useful subjects include:
- Biology
- Chemistry
- English
- Maths
Speak to your guidance teacher about subjects offered at your school.
Work placements and volunteering
You may find it helpful to get some healthcare experience by doing a work placement or volunteering. You’ll get training, increase your knowledge, and learn new skills. This could help you when applying to university, college or a new job with NHSScotland.
Technical Apprenticeship in Pharmacy Services
The Technical Apprenticeship in Pharmacy Services is the route to becoming a registered pharmacy technician.
You’ll start your career as a pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician and get experience working in hospitals, primary care, and community pharmacies.
After you complete the 2-year apprenticeship programme, you’ll be ready to register with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). You must maintain your professional registration each year.
You can apply for pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician vacancies on our recruitment website.
Get to know the role
As a pharmacy technician, you’ll prepare and dispense medicines safely and carry out accuracy checking to guarantee they are safe to take. You’ll also help patients manage their medicines while keeping a record of their medicine history.
Your role may vary depending on where you work.
Community pharmacy
In a community pharmacy, you'll give health advice to people about sexual health or stopping smoking.
Hospital pharmacy
In a hospital pharmacy, you'll review medicines, provide counselling, and give advice on different treatment options. You’ll be expected to provide a link between wards, patients and the pharmacy. You could also be involved in aseptic work, such as preparing feeds or chemotherapy medicines for patients.
Primary care
In primary care, you could be working in a GP practice. You’ll do medication reviews and work with other healthcare professionals to provide effective patient care.
Tasks include:
- reviewing and recording medicines
- providing advice on how to take and store medicines safely
- monitoring, ordering and taking stock of medicines received from pharmacy suppliers
- interpreting prescriptions, creating labels and supplying the appropriate medication
- recording information and analysing data
You'll need these skills:
- attention to detail
- planning and organising
- communicating
- problem-solving
- decision-making
- leadership
- collaboration
Pharmacy technicians work with other healthcare professionals, including:
- pharmacists
- pharmacy support workers
- GPs
You could work in:
- hospitals
- community pharmacies
- GP practices
- prisons
Learning and development
As a pharmacy technician, you must complete yearly revalidation to maintain your registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council. You must also keep your skills and knowledge up to date and reflect on how to improve.
Career progression
As you gain experience as a registered pharmacy technician, there will be many opportunities for you to progress. With training, you may choose to specialise in an area of pharmacy such as:
- medicines management
- general practice
- procurement
- clinical trials
- education
- information technology and digital solutions
- aseptic
- care at home
- oncology
- paediatrics
- medicines information
- research and development
- service development and management
- clinical pharmacy
Professional bodies
When you become a qualified pharmacy technician, you must register with the General Pharmaceutical Council to work in the NHS. You can also join the Association of Pharmacy Technicians (APTUK).
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