NHSE last month announced that it would fund 530 apprenticeships in community pharmacy for pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians.
Speaking at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham this week (October 14), the day after the scheme closed for applications, NHSE senior professional lead for pharmacy technician practice Liz Fidler revealed that the programme is attracting high demand.
Read more: NHSE to fund 530 community pharmacy technician apprenticeships
“I had a quick ‘scores on the doors’ check-in [and] we’ve oversubscribed in terms of those expressions of interest”, she told delegates.
She added that the team is “busy scoring those expressions of interest and there will be some outcomes after November 4”.
“Real appetite”
Fidler, who is a former president of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK), said that this shows “there is a real appetite” among community pharmacies around building “capacity for prescribing” and delivering “more clinical services”.
“That’s really exciting, because what we’re starting to see is the growth of the profession across all the sectors where pharmacy technicians work and where we know they’re employed post-registration,” she added.
Read more: NHSE reveals details of community pharmacy tech apprenticeship
Announcing the apprenticeship scheme, chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) David Webb said that the funding marks a “transition” from the last five years, in which bolstering pharmacy technician levels in “secondary care and primary care networks” (PCNs) was NHSE’s focus.
And earlier this month, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) revealed that successful applicants will receive a total of £30,106 from NHSE to help pay for the two-year apprenticeship.
In July last year, NHSE’s workforce plan revealed that it was weighing up introducing a pharmacist degree apprenticeship - something that proved controversial when it was previously mooted in 2019.
Read more: NHSE ‘planning implementation’ of pharmacy technician PGD use at ‘national level’
It comes as new NHSE data revealed earlier this month that the number of pharmacy technicians working in the community has plummeted by 30% in just two years - and a staggering 17% last year.
Meanwhile, also speaking at the Pharmacy Show conference, NHSE’s chief pharmacist revealed that NHSE is currently “planning implementation” of pharmacy technician use of patient group directions (PGDs) “at a national level”.
