Maintaining competency on an on-going basis is a fundamental responsibility of all professionals. Undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) is a way to demonstrate that an individual’s knowledge and skills are up to date and that their practice is safe and effective.

There is published evidence of a variance in standards of training and access to development opportunities for pharmacy technicians. A lack of adequate support may result in some pharmacy technicians being unaware of how to achieve competency or demonstrate that they are meeting professional obligations.

There are many organisations that can help pharmacy technicians with their CPD in all areas of practice and enable development at every stage of their career, including CPPE and Training Matters.

Practice points

• Why is it important to know what factors could cause someone to behave unprofessionally? Is it the individual, the employer or someone else who can do something about such a situation?
• Consider how each of the nine GPhC standards relate to your role.