NHSE reveals details of community pharmacy tech apprenticeship – but act fast
Over the two-year period, successful applicants will receive a total of £30,106 from NHSE to help pay for this apprenticeship, sites have until Sunday October 13, to apply for funding...
NHS England Workforce, Training, and Education announced the initiative last Friday (October 4) to support pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians (PTPTs), Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said.
The programme provides applicants with financial assistance for the full 24-month apprenticeship training programme.
Each site has been offered £15,053 per year to support community pharmacies in developing a PTPT training programme.
The programme must meet the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPC) initial education and training standards for pharmacy technicians and NHSE’s Education Quality Framework.
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Over the two-year period, successful applicants will receive a total of £30,106 from NHSE to help pay for the apprenticeship.
Those hoping to become a pharmacy technician have until the end of this week, Sunday October 13, to apply for funding under the apprenticeship programme.
This move comes after NHSE announced it would fund 530 apprenticeships in community pharmacies at the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) conference on September 6.
David Webb, NHSE’s chief pharmaceutical officer, explained that these apprenticeships would support the NHS’s Long Term Workforce plan, which “recognises the need for pharmacy technician expansion across all healthcare sectors.”
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According to Webb, this funding for roles in community pharmacies highlights NHSE’s focus on strengthening the level of pharmacy technicians in “secondary care and primary care networks.”
NHSE data recently revealed that the total number of community pharmacy technicians fell by 17% last year.
The number dropped from 6,544 community pharmacy technicians in England in 2022, to 5,436 in 2023, according to a survey commissioned by Health Education England (HEE) that was released at the start of October.
This is not the first year that figures have fallen: pharmacy technician numbers also declined by 16% between 2021 and 2022.
There were 7,768 pharmacy technicians in 2021, meaning the total number has fallen by almost a third (30%) in the last two years.
