The majority of pharmacy technicians rate their pre-registration training highly and report having a good relationship with their assessor. This is according to findings from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)'s pre-registration pharmacy technician training survey for the 2014-2015 training year.

Key findings from the report include:

• 89 per cent of trainee pharmacy technicians thought the overall quality of training was very good/good
• 90 per cent of trainee pharmacy technicians felt the training gave them the knowledge and skills they needed for their role
• 80 per cent of trainee pharmacy technicians would recommend their training to others
• 83 per cent of trainee pharmacy technicians rated the overall quality of the educational supervision they had received during their pharmacy technician training as very good or good.

The findings also revealed that trainees in community pharmacy were less likely to receive protected time for their training than their hospital counterparts, and suggested that the training experience of community pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician could be improved by requirements for induction to training and assessment of learning needs.

Commenting on the report, Tess Fenn, APTUK president, said: “It is pleasing to see the findings of the GPhC’s first Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician survey and the report’s comparison data with Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacist training. There is much within the report that can support the GPhC’s review into the initial education and training standards (IETS) and APTUK will be looking at this to aid their IET consultation response. This is most timely.”

In response to the findings, a spokesperson for the GPhC, said: “This project has been vital to informing our ongoing work around education and training in pharmacy and we hope will also inform the work of others. These surveys have helped us to understand better the experiences of pharmacy tutors and pre-registration pharmacist and pharmacy technician trainees and given us a deeper knowledge of the barriers which affect the quality of initial education and training.”

To read the report in full, click here.