How Much Education Do You Need to Become a Pharmacy Technician?

The need for pharmacy technicians is currently rising and demand continuing to trend upward according to a leading job site, indeed.com. While a lot of people are interested in getting into this profession, a majority of them do not know what education is needed and that’s what we’ll talk about here in this post.

The first educational requirement that most pharmacy boards require is a high school diploma or a G.E.D. certificate. This is the most basic academic requirement that you will need when applying for a job, even without a certificate or license. If you see yourself becoming a pharmacy technician as early as high school, do yourself a favour and take science and math courses and study hard to get good grades. This goes a long way in getting a job.

Second educational requirement you will need is a certificate from an accredited pharmacy training program. This may be from a school program or an employment program offered by a number of companies. Program length may vary, some as short as 6 months to as long as 2 years. Cost of training will vary, typically between two and four thousand dollars and plus a few hundred more on books. There are also online courses available for those who don’t want to travel but be careful when choosing an online program as there are a lot of fly by night schools out there. Some pharmaceutical companies like rite-aid and even hospitals offer training programs as well so you may want to look into that as well.

The third one isn’t a requirement but rather a supplementary one to further acquire knowledge. These are supplementary courses that they can take to broaden their knowledge in this field. You can take these courses from the National Pharmacy Technician Association and it is free to their members.

The fourth requirement is on the job training. Not all programs will have this as part of their curriculum especially online programs, but this is essential in your success as a pharm tech. If you weren’t able to get this type of training in school, you may apply for internship programs or apply as a part time technician. This is not a strict requirement but an important training process. While there may be successful technicians who didn’t go through this type of training, it would be beneficial for new pharmacy techs to get on the job training whenever they can.

Finally, if you want more information on pharmacy technician training, visit Benjamin Clifford’s site that has tons of information about getting a pharmacy tech certification.