For all healthcare practitioners, the move into professional practice is complex and demanding. It includes a period of intense learning of new skills, knowledge and behaviours. Newly qualified pharmacists need to adapt to a new phase in their career, and will experience the responsibilities of professional judgement and accountability. Newly qualified pharmacists have described 'lack of confidence', 'decision making', 'managing professional relationships', 'being in charge', and 'adapting to the workplace' as the greatest challenges they face.
The overall aim of the Newly qualified pharmacist programme is to support newly qualified pharmacists to develop, and demonstrate, confidence and competence in core areas of pharmacy practice. The programme is designed to support pharmacists to become better equipped to adapt and deliver safe and effective patient care, and overcome the challenges of this new stage of their career.
The 12-month programme, fully funded by NHS England (NHSE) as part of their Newly Qualified Pharmacist pathway, takes a blended learning approach, offering a mix of online learning, workshops, assessment and work-based support through a designated CPPE education supervisor.
The Newly qualified pharmacist programme will be a pharmacist’s first step on their post-registration professional development journey, and provides comprehensive learning to support pharmacists to demonstrate readiness to enrol on an independent prescribing (IP) training course.
More information is available on the Training programme page.
The CPPE Newly qualified pharmacist programme is for pharmacists who are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council(GPhC) since 2021* and are employed or locuming in any of the following settings as their main role:
* Pharmacists who registered before 2021 who are returning from a career break are also eligible to apply.
** NHSE provides separate funding for pharmacists working for Boots or in hospital pharmacy. These pharmacists are not eligible to apply for the CPPE programme; they are expected to access the internal training programmes for newly qualified pharmacists and education supervision provided by those employers and funded by NHSE.
*** Pharmacists working in posts which are funded via the primary care network (PCN) additional roles reimbursement scheme are not eligible to apply for the CPPE Newly qualified pharmacist programme as they are required to enrol on the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP).
Pharmacists who are not working in a patient-facing role are not eligible because the Newly qualified pharmacist programme is a workplace-based vocational programme.
If you are changing your area of practice, then please see our early careers pharmacists page for resources to support you to move into community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy or primary care.
Contact newlyqualified@cppe.ac.uk if you cannot find the answers to your questions about the Newly qualified pharmacist programme on our website.
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