Continuing Professional Development for Pharmacy Technicians

Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

1 year part-time

Places available (subject to change)

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About the course

Reasons to study

You could enhance your career prospects and gain the tools to get you a promotion.
Your learning will take place in our purpose-built pharmacy practice suite as well as other lab and classroom based settings.
You’ll be taught by Pharmacists and Academic staff, with a broad range of industry and teaching experience.

This course has been designed to help pharmacy technicians, involved in the delivery and development of new and extended roles, with their continuing professional development (CPD).

Our experience of delivering CPD to pharmacy technicians demonstrates that career progression is facilitated by completion of our university courses.
This course could be ideal for anyone wanting to expand their role, gain the tools for promotion and enhance their career.
There is no qualification awarded for this course but those who successfully complete the course will receive a letter confirming their completion.

Course detail

Year 1

Core modules:

Professional Development

The increasingly important and responsible role of the pharmacy technician brings with it an increasingly demanding need for pharmacy technicians. In common with all healthcare professionals, to take responsibility for your continuing personal professional development, mandatory CPD is a component of registration as a pharmacy technician (or other healthcare professional). The overall aim of this module is to support you in effective professional development by providing the skills to enable you to take responsibility for your own, effective, lifelong learning and to enable you to access and use the appropriate resources to achieve this independently.

Option modules:

Choose one module from Pool 1 and one module from Pool 2-

Pool 1

Medicines Management

The aim of this module is to provide you with the underpinning knowledge to enable you to take an active part in a wide range of activities, which can be classed as ‘medicines management’ and ‘pharmaceutical care’. The module will provide knowledge and skills for pharmacy technicians to take their part in patient-centred medication review to assess efficacy, respond to adverse effects and support compliance, rational prescribing, safe repeat prescribing and appropriate patient information. The module content includes the provision of patient information, pharmaceutical care, medication review and medicines optimisation. Recent reforms and drivers for change in the profession of pharmacy will be discussed and you'll be enabled to take a greater role in your chosen area.

Applied Therapeutics for Pharmacy Technicians

The aim of this module is to provide pharmacy technicians with the underpinning knowledge to work with patients and their medicines to improve healthcare outcomes. This module will focus on the application of an integrated knowledgebase to inform decision-making and problem-solving of issues regarding pharmaceutical care of individual patients. It will focus on problem solving and pharmaceutical care planning whilst also introducing a variety of therapeutic areas and their management. Using taught, work based, and directed study you'll have the opportunity to apply theory to work by the preparation of ‘real-life’ care plans demonstrating application of knowledge.

Pool 2

Medication Safety

The aim of this module is to provide pharmacy technicians, without a dispensing role, with the underpinning knowledge to work with patients and their medicines to improve safety. With an emphasis on error reduction, the module will combine knowledge with skills to provide competence to reduce errors. Using both taught and self-directed study you'll have the opportunity to apply theory to work by the preparation of ‘real-life’ initiatives demonstrating application of knowledge. You'll be expected to become more familiar with the way in which work-place protocols and procedures operate and also be encouraged to appraise and challenge current procedures and ways of working to provide the safest possible care, benefiting both patients and other professionals.

Accredited Accuracy Checking for Pharmacy

The aim of this module, also suitable as an independent short course, is to provide the underpinning knowledge to enable pharmacy personnel to carry out the final accuracy check of dispensed items with confidence. The content is appropriate for the checking role and provides underpinning knowledge for you to understand the risks of inaccurate dispensing and their likely causes, the circumstances leading to error and ways to minimise risk. The role of protocols and procedures will be described and you'll be supported in developing the communication skills necessary for reducing the risk of errors in the pharmacy and at the point of administration. The module is recognised for ‘ACT’ across NHS employers in Yorkshire and Humber.

Teaching and assessment

You’ll be taught by pharmacy and academic staff, with a broad range of experience, who will use lectures, tutorials and practical exercises to ensure you have the opportunity to remain engaged. Assessment will include coursework completed throughout the year and module assignments, as well as a mini-project, which is presented at a showcase conference at the end of the course.

Your module specification/course handbook will provide full details of the assessment criteria applying to your course.

On average 30.8%* of the study time on this course is spent with your tutors (either face to face or online) in lectures, seminars, laboratory sessions etc.

*based on 2023/2024 timetables

Huddersfield is the UK’s only university where 100% of the permanent teaching staff are fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Further information

The teaching year normally starts in September with breaks at Christmas and Easter, finishing around May/June. Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

Your course is made up of modules and each module is worth a number of credits, (20 credits per module).

Teaching excellence

The University of Huddersfield has been rated Gold in all three aspects of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023. We were the only university in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West to achieve Gold ratings in all three aspects of the TEF among those announced in September 2023. In fact only 13 Universities, out of the 96 that were announced in September 2023, were Gold in all three ratings.
Further proof of teaching excellence: our staff rank in the top three in England for the proportion who hold doctorates, who have higher degrees, and hold teaching qualifications (HESA 2024). So, you’ll learn from some of the best, helping you to be the best.
We are joint first in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 23 since 2008 (2024 data).
We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award, recognising the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

The course consists of three 20 credit modules at ‘F’ level (60 credits in total) and is delivered in an integrated way to provide skills related to professional development, medicines management and medication safety or accuracy checking for pharmacy (ACT).

Entry requirements

You must be a Registered Pharmacy Technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and be able to use the internet, email and have basic competence in 'Office' programmes such as Word and PowerPoint. You must also have access to the internet.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

Facilities

Applied Sciences Students' Hub

Applied Sciences Joseph Priestley building

Pharmacy laboratory

Pharmacy student practicing laboratory techniques

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Fees and Finance

Tuition Fees - part-time

Most students are eligible for full NHS funding if employed by the NHS in Yorkshire and Humber.

The maximum fees we will charge for UK based students on undergraduate courses in 2025/26 will be £1,589 per 20 credit module and £2,384 per 30 credit module per year for part-time students (subject to parliamentary approval). We review and revise fee levels in line with inflation (RPI-X) and regulatory permissions.

Tuition fees will cover the cost of your study at the University as well as charges for registration, tuition, supervision and examinations. For more information about funding, fees and finance for UK students, including what your tuition fee covers, please see Fees and finance.

If you are an EU or international student coming to study at the University of Huddersfield, please visit the International Fees and Finance pages for full details of tuition fees and support available.

Please email the Student Finance Office or call 01484 472210 for more information about fees and finance.

Fees and Finance

Tuition Fees - part-time

Most students are eligible for full NHS funding if employed by the NHS in Yorkshire and Humber.

Please email the Student Finance Office or call 01484 472210 for more information about fees and finance.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.