Is pharmacy going to get saturated with jobs hard to come by?
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy but worried with all these new schools of pharmacy and there may be too many pharmacists? Don't want to do the degree and get nothing in the end?
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
Scroll to see replies
Original post by college80
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy but worried with all these new schools of pharmacy and there may be too many pharmacists? Don't want to do the degree and get nothing in the end?
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
Pharmacy is a good degree and job prospects are ok as long as you go somewhere with a good reputation.
However looking ahead 10 or 15 years I am a bit worried about a potentially overcrowded job market.
My prediction is that in around 5 years time, there are gonna be a lot of pharmacists and jobs around! So there is going to be more competition for jobs ( except for if you start your own community pharmacy shop!).. Like they probably want to employ pharmacists who went to the good pharmacy university than the ones lower down in the league table!
If you are genuinely interested in pharmacy then do it, if you are a good pharmacist and take your job seriously then you will find a job and rise up the ranks. If you want to coast through with minimum effort then you may run into trouble.
Original post by college80
I'm thinking of applying to pharmacy but worried with all these new schools of pharmacy and there may be too many pharmacists? Don't want to do the degree and get nothing in the end?
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
And talk of remote supervision by the government this year where a pharmacists can supervise several pharmacies via video link could mean even fewer chances for people when they qualify as only one pharmacist would need to be employed to run several chemists?
Are the schools being responsible or will there be jobs?
I don't know if I should apply.
There's a shortage elsewhere in the western world, ie. Australia, Canada, America. If you do well on your course, understand it all, and pass the respective country's exam, then you can get a job there. The pay may not be as high but the standard and costs of living are often lower therefore your pay would strecth further.
If you do really well, and are inclined in the field of research, there are several large pharmaceutical companies to work for.
If you're good at teaching, I'm sure you'd be able to find something in the field of academia, whether it be in a university, college and I'd expect that you could use it to help you with other teaching roles.
You're only limited by what you want and what you can imagine.
We're already seeing hospital pre-regs locally struggling to find jobs after they've qualified because of a lack of Band 6 positions. One worked for me as a student so I've been able to sort her out a bank position but can't guarantee her hours. Another one I've used as a locum but he won't take a bank position which limits the help I can give him. Both were from the new schools of pharmacy - this may just be a coincidence.
If you're committed and you work hard and get useful work experience in your vacation (this is not the same as experience in a pharmacy) then you increase your employability. Some SOPs have a reputation amongst employers for turning out good, safe clinical pharmacists - when choosing your SOP look at the destinations on graduation and the % employed after the pre-reg.
If you're committed and you work hard and get useful work experience in your vacation (this is not the same as experience in a pharmacy) then you increase your employability. Some SOPs have a reputation amongst employers for turning out good, safe clinical pharmacists - when choosing your SOP look at the destinations on graduation and the % employed after the pre-reg.
Well that is the thing isn't it? I think you should be willing to move for your career, just as a doctor is likely to do. I would be happy to move, in fact I look forward to it 
Not to freak anyone out - but it's predicted that the there will be enough, if not a surplus, of pharmacists once the registration assessment results are announced in 2013.
This means we could be seeing job shortages as early as 2014.
But I agree that people should study pharmacy. I enjoyed the degree and am having a decent career so far. If you do extracurricular stuff and set yourself above the rest then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. The people who need to worry are those you see Pharmacy as a job, not a career, and simply want to do a 9-5 bring home the bacon.
This means we could be seeing job shortages as early as 2014.
But I agree that people should study pharmacy. I enjoyed the degree and am having a decent career so far. If you do extracurricular stuff and set yourself above the rest then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. The people who need to worry are those you see Pharmacy as a job, not a career, and simply want to do a 9-5 bring home the bacon.
Original post by TigerSwift
Not to freak anyone out - but it's predicted that the there will be enough, if not a surplus, of pharmacists once the registration assessment results are announced in 2013.
This means we could be seeing job shortages as early as 2014.
But I agree that people should study pharmacy. I enjoyed the degree and am having a decent career so far. If you do extracurricular stuff and set yourself above the rest then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. The people who need to worry are those you see Pharmacy as a job, not a career, and simply want to do a 9-5 bring home the bacon.
This means we could be seeing job shortages as early as 2014.
But I agree that people should study pharmacy. I enjoyed the degree and am having a decent career so far. If you do extracurricular stuff and set yourself above the rest then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. The people who need to worry are those you see Pharmacy as a job, not a career, and simply want to do a 9-5 bring home the bacon.
What' s ridiculous is that new schools of pharmacy opening. They only care about making money for themselves so that they can satisfy their own careers financially as pharmacy lecturers. Why isn't the Pharmacy council stopping these schools from opening if they know there aregoing to be too many pharmacists?
Is it going to be very difficult for pharmacists to get jobs from 2014 onwards?
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by college80
What' s ridiculous is that new schools of pharmacy opening. They only care about making money for themselves so that they can satisfy their own careers financially as pharmacy lecturers. Why isn't the Pharmacy council stopping these schools from opening if they know there aregoing to be too many pharmacists?
Is it going to be very difficult for pharmacists to get jobs from 2014 onwards?
Is it going to be very difficult for pharmacists to get jobs from 2014 onwards?
As has been pointed out before when someone comes out with this rationale, it is not the job of the Pharmacy profession to manipulate schools to only provide the number of pharmacists required, it is the job of the pharmacy profession to maximise patient safety and that is done by getting the best pharmacists. If there are 500 pharmacy vacancies you do not train 500 pharmacists, you train a 1000 and the 500 lower performing ones who just scrape through and do the minimum don't get a job, simple.
MP
Original post by MaturePharm
As has been pointed out before when someone comes out with this rationale, it is not the job of the Pharmacy profession to manipulate schools to only provide the number of pharmacists required, it is the job of the pharmacy profession to maximise patient safety and that is done by getting the best pharmacists. If there are 500 pharmacy vacancies you do not train 500 pharmacists, you train a 1000 and the 500 lower performing ones who just scrape through and do the minimum don't get a job, simple.
MP
MP
True.
Anyway I have heard that if remote supervision gets the go ahead in the next year or so it could end the profession as there will be little requirement for pharmacists (if anything they will work in a call centre environemnt to supervise many pharmacies via web cam). Thousands will be out of a job who have already qualified.
I will research another degree/profession now.
Original post by college80
What' s ridiculous is that new schools of pharmacy opening. They only care about making money for themselves so that they can satisfy their own careers financially as pharmacy lecturers. Why isn't the Pharmacy council stopping these schools from opening if they know there aregoing to be too many pharmacists?
Is it going to be very difficult for pharmacists to get jobs from 2014 onwards?
Is it going to be very difficult for pharmacists to get jobs from 2014 onwards?
It is usually the institutes' decision to teach the course so doesn't have much to do with already existing lecturers. What happens is that the course is announced and given the green light by the regulator - then the new school invites existing senior pharmacy lecturers to help set it up and become their senior staff.
Also, as the regulator the General Pharmaceutical Council is in place to protect patients and the public. It is not there to regulate which schools open and how many open. They do regulate the degrees to ensure they are producing graduates that are fit for practice.
I don't think it will be VERY difficult, but it will be more difficult. Pharmacy graduates are going to have to start behaving more like medical students - working harder and doing more extracurricular activities and getting involved in their profession. Yes, that is a sweeping generalisation to say all medical students do that as I know not all of them do - but I beleive they do so more than pharmacy students. Which is a shame because pharmacy rules!!! (end of geek rant)
Original post by tregan92
I am also worried about what is going to happen to the Pharmacy profession in the future. The problem is, lower class universities are taking on Pharmacy students like no tomorrow.
You won't believe the idiots in my University studying pharmacy with me. A lot of them definitely do not have any sort of professional attitude towards anything, rather they have 'gangster' attitudes, and they are also lacking in the academic department.
I know one guy, not a very nice person, terrible racist and a bigot. He resat his A-Levels twice (totalling 4 years of A-Levels, having lots of chances at every exam) and he is scraping into Pharmacy with, still, minimal grades. Doesn't have the right attitude nor the right aptitude for the profession.
A lot of pharmacy students have resat so many exams, and whole years of A-Levels its pathetic. Its hard to find someone that is not secretly one or two years older than you due to them having resat a whole year or two. And those that have gotten in have almost never met the grade requirements (which is commonly BBB).
Most of the pharmacy students that stay in this university dorm also smoke marijuana. I assume a lot of students do that nowadays, but for a student professional bound by the fitness to practise programme it is unacceptable.
I suppose its the mentality that Pharmacy earns a decent pay, being 'closest' to medicine without being 'hard to get into' like medicine. The people on my course just see money, and are willing to do the bare minimum to get it.
Rant over
If you are worried about pharmacists being in surplus (with lots of crappy 2:3 pharmacists), then here is what you need to remember:
Distinguish yourself.
Get at least a 2:1, do lots of extra cirricular, and if you can, make friends in high places. Be well known and build up your reputation. Don't talk slang. Give a damn about your job and do it well. Be professional.
The people who really want to be pharmacists will do all of the above.
Those that coast through just to get the degree and money will not be able to do the above, they won't be bothered, or by the time they realise they are stuggling to find employment because they suck at being pharmacists, it will be too late.
You won't believe the idiots in my University studying pharmacy with me. A lot of them definitely do not have any sort of professional attitude towards anything, rather they have 'gangster' attitudes, and they are also lacking in the academic department.
I know one guy, not a very nice person, terrible racist and a bigot. He resat his A-Levels twice (totalling 4 years of A-Levels, having lots of chances at every exam) and he is scraping into Pharmacy with, still, minimal grades. Doesn't have the right attitude nor the right aptitude for the profession.
A lot of pharmacy students have resat so many exams, and whole years of A-Levels its pathetic. Its hard to find someone that is not secretly one or two years older than you due to them having resat a whole year or two. And those that have gotten in have almost never met the grade requirements (which is commonly BBB).
Most of the pharmacy students that stay in this university dorm also smoke marijuana. I assume a lot of students do that nowadays, but for a student professional bound by the fitness to practise programme it is unacceptable.
I suppose its the mentality that Pharmacy earns a decent pay, being 'closest' to medicine without being 'hard to get into' like medicine. The people on my course just see money, and are willing to do the bare minimum to get it.
Rant over
If you are worried about pharmacists being in surplus (with lots of crappy 2:3 pharmacists), then here is what you need to remember:
Distinguish yourself.
Get at least a 2:1, do lots of extra cirricular, and if you can, make friends in high places. Be well known and build up your reputation. Don't talk slang. Give a damn about your job and do it well. Be professional.
The people who really want to be pharmacists will do all of the above.
Those that coast through just to get the degree and money will not be able to do the above, they won't be bothered, or by the time they realise they are stuggling to find employment because they suck at being pharmacists, it will be too late.
Do you mind me asking what university you're studying at?
To be fair though, there are people like me who got decent grades in A levels but will turn up at uni to do pharmacy a year older than everyone else not due to a re-take but because they just didn't know what the hell they wanted to do with their lives and took a gap year instead
! Though that kind of depends if Manchester will let me defer my entry ...beyond that though i find that this thread worries me: where i come from, people study pharmacy for nothing BUT the job security (okay there will be the passionate few, but everyone else that i've met is doing it for the job security and due to parent's pressures too!) and if there's going to be a surplus then maybe it looks like i'm doing the right thing in trying to take a gap year :/
Original post by college80
I have now decided to study pharmacy. Spoken to people in the field and yes there will be more graduates when I qualify but I'm optimistic that job security will be there. I guess I over reacted in this thread.
Good luck to everyone who will be studying pharmacy.
Good luck to everyone who will be studying pharmacy.
how many pharmacists did you speak to? And, what did they say?
I cry BS. Fewer people are choosing the Masters degree due to that extra year study that will now cost them upwards of 9K more then any other degree. If you fail your pre-reg exam 3 times, you've just thrown away 4 yrs of study and all that money. The degree is also not easy, and I have friends at uni dropping like flies in yr 1 and 2. I dont feel the new pharmacy schools will be churning out the graduates. In fact, I would avoid them as it takes a University a long time to set up a decent course with suitable resources, admin,lecturers and pass papers etc.
As a community technician, we are always screaming for pharmacists. There may be a lot around, but the standard of the locums at the moment seems to be just terrible (in my area at least, a good five years now of frightful locums, most over 40-50yrs old who balk at CPDs and the RP regulations). What will get you a community job is a great working attitude, professional behaviour and sound knowledge base.
As for hospital, all pharmacists seem to have to start at the bottom, so naturally you can expect heafty competition. This area doesn't much interest me, not with the white paper services now available in community.
What am I trying to say exactly? Be flexible. Work hospital, work community, even consider industry. Jobs are there.Seek out demand and fill a need.
As a community technician, we are always screaming for pharmacists. There may be a lot around, but the standard of the locums at the moment seems to be just terrible (in my area at least, a good five years now of frightful locums, most over 40-50yrs old who balk at CPDs and the RP regulations). What will get you a community job is a great working attitude, professional behaviour and sound knowledge base.
As for hospital, all pharmacists seem to have to start at the bottom, so naturally you can expect heafty competition. This area doesn't much interest me, not with the white paper services now available in community.
What am I trying to say exactly? Be flexible. Work hospital, work community, even consider industry. Jobs are there.Seek out demand and fill a need.
Original post by tregan92
Original post by tregan92
I
Original post by sugardust
Do you mind me asking what university you're studying at?
I would like to know this as well: "Do you mind me asking what university you're studying at?"
Original post by tregan92
I am also worried about what is going to happen to the Pharmacy profession in the future. The problem is, lower class universities are taking on Pharmacy students like no tomorrow.
You won't believe the idiots in my University studying pharmacy with me. A lot of them definitely do not have any sort of professional attitude towards anything, rather they have 'gangster' attitudes, and they are also lacking in the academic department.
I know one guy, not a very nice person, terrible racist and a bigot. He resat his A-Levels twice (totalling 4 years of A-Levels, having lots of chances at every exam) and he is scraping into Pharmacy with, still, minimal grades. Doesn't have the right attitude nor the right aptitude for the profession.
A lot of pharmacy students have resat so many exams, and whole years of A-Levels its pathetic. Its hard to find someone that is not secretly one or two years older than you due to them having resat a whole year or two. And those that have gotten in have almost never met the grade requirements (which is commonly BBB).
Most of the pharmacy students that stay in this university dorm also smoke marijuana. I assume a lot of students do that nowadays, but for a student professional bound by the fitness to practise programme it is unacceptable.
I suppose its the mentality that Pharmacy earns a decent pay, being 'closest' to medicine without being 'hard to get into' like medicine. The people on my course just see money, and are willing to do the bare minimum to get it.
Rant over
If you are worried about pharmacists being in surplus (with lots of crappy 2:3 pharmacists), then here is what you need to remember:
Distinguish yourself.
Get at least a 2:1, do lots of extra cirricular, and if you can, make friends in high places. Be well known and build up your reputation. Don't talk slang. Give a damn about your job and do it well. Be professional.
The people who really want to be pharmacists will do all of the above.
Those that coast through just to get the degree and money will not be able to do the above, they won't be bothered, or by the time they realise they are stuggling to find employment because they suck at being pharmacists, it will be too late.
You won't believe the idiots in my University studying pharmacy with me. A lot of them definitely do not have any sort of professional attitude towards anything, rather they have 'gangster' attitudes, and they are also lacking in the academic department.
I know one guy, not a very nice person, terrible racist and a bigot. He resat his A-Levels twice (totalling 4 years of A-Levels, having lots of chances at every exam) and he is scraping into Pharmacy with, still, minimal grades. Doesn't have the right attitude nor the right aptitude for the profession.
A lot of pharmacy students have resat so many exams, and whole years of A-Levels its pathetic. Its hard to find someone that is not secretly one or two years older than you due to them having resat a whole year or two. And those that have gotten in have almost never met the grade requirements (which is commonly BBB).
Most of the pharmacy students that stay in this university dorm also smoke marijuana. I assume a lot of students do that nowadays, but for a student professional bound by the fitness to practise programme it is unacceptable.
I suppose its the mentality that Pharmacy earns a decent pay, being 'closest' to medicine without being 'hard to get into' like medicine. The people on my course just see money, and are willing to do the bare minimum to get it.
Rant over
If you are worried about pharmacists being in surplus (with lots of crappy 2:3 pharmacists), then here is what you need to remember:
Distinguish yourself.
Get at least a 2:1, do lots of extra cirricular, and if you can, make friends in high places. Be well known and build up your reputation. Don't talk slang. Give a damn about your job and do it well. Be professional.
The people who really want to be pharmacists will do all of the above.
Those that coast through just to get the degree and money will not be able to do the above, they won't be bothered, or by the time they realise they are stuggling to find employment because they suck at being pharmacists, it will be too late.
Blimey. If anything's going to put you off pharmacy, it's this.
Still want to be one though, even if I will be a lot younger than everyone else if what you say about a lot of them having done resits, since I'm studying in Scotland and we have one less year of school than English students. No re-sitting a year for me either.And if I can't get any jobs in Britain when I qualify, New Zealand is dying for pharmacists, I'll get a job over there.
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