NPA Education and Training

The Education and Training Department provides a comprehensive range of services, which aim to help Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Dispensary Assistants and Medicine Counter Assistants play their respective part in the running of an efficient and successful community pharmacy. Investing time and resources into training staff has huge benefits for a pharmacy business. The department offers NPA members a first-class service - providing high quality materials and readily available advice and guidance on all aspects of training. For Pharmacists, there are resources on effective management and communication skills - as well as training resource packs to help train other healthcare workers such as care assistants, practice receptionists and GP trainees on work experience pharmacy placement. For Pharmacy Technicians there are distance learning National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) in Pharmacy Services Level 2 and 3 and checking technician courses. For Dispensary Assistants, there is a six month distance learning course that leads to an NPA certificate. For Medicine Counter Assistants, there is a self-study training programme (Pharmacy Interact), which meets the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) requirements for accredited training programmes. This programme lasts 9 months. The NPA Training Department also provides an assessment of submitted training material, for which they award the NPA Training Seal. This is awarded to training materials that have been evaluated against certain rigorous criteria. Recent award winners include Bayer, Warner-Lambert, and Reckitt Benckiser.