Criteria for registering overseas technicians
The Society's Council has agreed a number of criteria for the admission to the pharmacy technicians' register of persons with overseas qualifications.
The April Council
meeting accepted a number of recommendations from the
steering group on regulation of support staff. On English language testing,
the Council agreed that applicants from outside the European Economic
Area would be required to attain an English Language Testing Score of
7, which is the same level as the Society has set for overseas pharmacists.
If European Union legislation changed to permit language testing within
the EEA, a similar standard would be set for pharmacy technicians with
initial qualifications gained in Europe.
The Council also agreed to amend the advice given to overseas pharmacists
applying to register through the adjudicating process to take account
of the implications of pharmacy technician registration. In the past
many such persons have worked as pharmacy technicians while waiting to
sit the overseas pharmacists’ examination or to undertake the overseas
pharmacists’ course, but the new statutory powers will prevent
their employment in this capacity. Such applicants will in future be
advised of the need to undertake the pharmacy services level 3 Scottish/National
Vocational Qualification before they can work as technicians.
Those already working in Britain as pharmacy technicians would be eligible
to join the technicians’ register if they can provide evidence
of a qualification that entitles them to practise as pharmacists in their
country of origin or evidence of a pharmacy technician qualification
equivalent to the pharmacy services S/NVQ level 3 that would entitle
them to practise as a pharmacy technician in that country. Those who
cannot demonstrate that they have a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician
qualification in their country of origin would have to complete the pharmacy
services S/NVQ level 3 before applying to register as a technician.
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