The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7251 p771
31 May 2003

Society summary

Tenders invited for accreditation of technicians' courses

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is inviting tenders from bodies interested in becoming its chosen accrediting body for pharmacy technicians' courses.

The Council has decided that from January 2005 all staff involved in assembling prescriptions should be trained to a minimum standard equivalent to Level 2 of the Scottish/National Vocational Qualification (S/NVQ) in pharmacy services or be undertaking training in this respect (PJ, 26 April, p595). The Society is now seeking to appoint an accrediting body that will determine on its behalf training courses that are equivalent to the S/NVQ level 2. Equivalent courses will use the set of occupational standards developed for the pharmacy services S/NVQ, and course providers will be required to demonstrate that their training programmes are of an equivalent level in assessing competence to these standards.

The Society estimates that 2,000 to 5,000 candidates a year, from two or three course providers, will undertake accredited equivalent qualifications. The accreditation process will be cost neutral to the Society with the accrediting body recovering costs by charging a fee to the course providers. A three-year contract will be offered to the successful accrediting body with a scheduled implementation date of 15 August 2003.

Copies of the full invitation to tender document can be obtained from Kailas Mahadevaiah in the Society's Practice Division (tel 020 7572 2537; e-mail kmahadevaiah@rpsgb.org.uk).