Pharmacy technicans

Pharmacy technicians play a key role in enabling the pharmacy workforce to deliver high quality services as detailed in Pharmacy in England: building on strengths – delivering the future. Department of Health (2008).

CPPE is here to support anyone who has taken the step of registering as a pharmacy professional and is committed to supporting continuing professional development (CPD) for pharmacy technicians.

How can CPPE support my learning?

As a registered pharmacy technician you are integral to the pharmacy team in your practice. We develop and design many of our programmes for both pharmacy technicans and pharmacists.

We also develop programmes that have been exclusively designed to meet the learning needs of pharmacy technicians. We have some bespoke open learning programmes, and from time to time we run national study days and events. You can access:

focal point topics developed for community pharmacy teams. Attend a tutor-led event or set up a learning community with your colleagues. focal point programmes

open learning programmes, designed for self study. Many of these are available to pharmacy technicians. Remember you can download and view before your place an order. Open learning programmes

workshops. Attend one of our local Route to revalidation workshops led by a CPPE tutor. Event/workshop

learning@lunch topics developed for hospital pharmacy teams. Attend a meeting in your hospital trust or set up a learning comunity with your colleagues. learning@lunch programmes

most of our e-assessments. Successful completion will give you the confidence that you are fit to practise in that service or clinical area. E-assessment portfolio

Our learning programmes can be found in our full learning portfolio. For more information about categories and themes, go to Features of CPPE programmes.

You can also read more about what programmes we offer on our pharmacy technicians leaflet (PDF).

Learning communities

If you are interested in setting up a local learning group with your colleagues or friends, then you might want to consider starting a learning community. You can use our focal point or learning@lunch materials to support your learning. We already have quite a few pharmacy technician learning community groups. Visit the focal point or learning@lunch pages to see if you can join a local group, or email info@cppe.ac.uk for more information.

Using CPPE for your CPD

To use CPPE, first register on to our website. When you are logged in you can find all your CPPE learning activities within My CPPE. You can also check and update your contact details, enable CPPE viewer for programmes and e-assessments you have completed, and check orders and bookings.

When you complete a learning programme we will ask for feedback. Using your feedback to our questions, we will then send you an email containing all the information you need to transfer your learning to a CPD entry. We think of this as our CPD present to you!

Further support for pharmacy technicans

If you are involved in commissioning and providing enhanced services then you might be interested in our CPPE local solutions learning resources. You can use these resources, free of charge, to train pharmacists and their staff to deliver a range of enhanced services.

We are aware that we cannot always provide the learning that you may be looking for, and so have a signposting section on our website. We provide details of courses that may be of interest to the pharmacy workforce, offered by other providers. Signposting portfolio

Getting involved

We are keen to have pharmacy professionals from a wide range of practices to help develop and pilot new programmes. To read about how you can get involved and sign up to the pilot register, go to the Getting involved with CPPE page.

Developing your role as a pharmacy technician

Using CPPE learning programmes to support your CPD will enable you to demonstrate that you are fit to practise in your chosen area of the pharmacy profession.

In addition, you may want to develop your role. While CPPE do not offer courses that support the current areas of pharmacy technician career development, we can offer you information to get you started on the right path.

If you are looking to take your career further, we are developing articles about accredited checking technicians (ACTs), foundation degrees and NVQ assessors. They will be available on this page soon.