Students should think twice about pharmacy

Pre - reg places are getting very difficult to come by now with companies rejecting students on the basis of 'overwhelmingly this year too many applicants, applying for pre-reg' there are simply too many applicants per pre reg places avaialable and too many pharmacists per job either in hospital or community (there simply are not enough jobs to go round in community and hospital to cater for all the qualified pharmacists right now...can you imagine things a few years down the line?)

The pharmacy board/society probably saw this coming a few years ago and as they cannot cap student numbers (unlike Dentristy and Medicine can) they cannot do much about it. It looks like 4 years of intense study and then no job for pharmacy students. Other sectors of pharmacy will have few jobs as it is and the situation is getting bleak now, let alone by the time students qualify in a few years.

This once secure healthcare job is now entering intense saturation territory and students should think long and hard about studying. Of course if pharmacy student capping was introduced this would not have happened but we still have new pharmacy schools opening next year...one shudders to think what effect that will have on an already bleak situation. Dentistry and Medicine will not allow new schools to open like this as they want to control their workforce and hence ensure secure job employment. Unfortunately the pharmacy profession does not have the power to do this. New schools of pharmacy can keep on opening and bring in lots of money for universities.

Pharmacists themselves are very worried about the situation and are urging students to save their money and time as forget 4 years down the line, here and now is getting very difficult.

Yes we can talk about no course guarantees jobs etc but pharmacy is heading towards the historical 90% job prospect rate to a 40% job prospect rate, that is even lower than those already saturarted job/course markets.

Things have changed dramatically since 5 years ago.

Serious action needs to be taken. I don't understand why there is no cap for pharmacists.

The pharmacy board/society are really useless.

Exactly my point, how is it possible medicine courses are capped. Yet Pharmacists, who are a similar case simply don't?

People complain, yet nothing happens? Shows they're talking to the wrong people tbh.

Medicine is funded by the NHS, that's the reason I think.

That doesn't have anything to do with the NHS though they don't influence who can and can not be a doctor. That lies with the regulatory bored, they should implement some form of cap, which I don't think anyone disagrees with? Other than the universities, who don't actually care about their students - only money

I am a 3rd year student who is predicted a first class. I have 7 years experience as a qualified pharmacy technician, and yet I can not secure a pre-reg position. This is a complete nightmare. My applications were checked and double checked and I was very judicious with the content, yet I am being turned down for 'sheer volume.'

If students want a pre-reg place, they need to corner themselves into a summer position with Boots, Morrisons, Co-op or Lloyds etc in year 1 and 2. Without it, you are thrown to the wolves. This means either not being paid for work over summer, or being punished if you're international and go home / work abroad. Or like me, work for a different company that does not run summer-> pre-reg progression options. Other companies don't seem to care about your experience elsewhere.

Of course, getting summer placements for little or no pay is itself highly competitive. I wish I had never started down this long, difficult and extremely expensive road. There are not enough jobs to go around, and this is only the start. The market is soon to become completely saturated and you will be lucky to get a job. Any jobs available will be a 'race to the bottom' with pharmacists dealing with terrible working conditions and pressure to keep their position, because they know 50 young and naive newly qualified pharmacists are ready to swoop in and snatch it from them.

Of course, students who don't get a pre-reg place can not sit the pre-reg exam or ever hope to become pharmacists. This degree is proving to be a complete waste.

Students beware!

I am a 3rd year student who is predicted a first class. I have 7 years experience as a qualified pharmacy technician, and yet I can not secure a pre-reg position. This is a complete nightmare. My applications were checked and double checked and I was very judicious with the content, yet I am being turned down for 'sheer volume.'

If students want a pre-reg place, they need to corner themselves into a summer position with Boots, Morrisons, Co-op or Lloyds etc in year 1 and 2. Without it, you are thrown to the wolves. This means either not being paid for work over summer, or being punished if you're international and go home / work abroad. Or like me, work for a different company that does not run summer-> pre-reg progression options. Other companies don't seem to care about your experience elsewhere.

Of course, getting summer placements for little or no pay is itself highly competitive. I wish I had never started down this long, difficult and extremely expensive road. There are not enough jobs to go around, and this is only the start. The market is soon to become completely saturated and you will be lucky to get a job. Any jobs available will be a 'race to the bottom' with pharmacists dealing with terrible working conditions and pressure to keep their position, because they know 50 young and naive newly qualified pharmacists are ready to swoop in and snatch it from them.

Of course, students who don't get a pre-reg place can not sit the pre-reg exam or ever hope to become pharmacists. This degree is proving to be a complete waste.

Students beware!

I am a 3rd year student who is predicted a first class. I have 7 years experience as a qualified pharmacy technician, and yet I can not secure a pre-reg position. This is a complete nightmare. My applications were checked and double checked and I was very judicious with the content, yet I am being turned down for 'sheer volume.'

If students want a pre-reg place, they need to corner themselves into a summer position with Boots, Morrisons, Co-op or Lloyds etc in year 1 and 2. Without it, you are thrown to the wolves. This means either not being paid for work over summer, or being punished if you're international and go home / work abroad. Or like me, work for a different company that does not run summer-> pre-reg progression options. Other companies don't seem to care about your experience elsewhere.

Of course, getting summer placements for little or no pay is itself highly competitive. I wish I had never started down this long, difficult and extremely expensive road. There are not enough jobs to go around, and this is only the start. The market is soon to become completely saturated and you will be lucky to get a job. Any jobs available will be a 'race to the bottom' with pharmacists dealing with terrible working conditions and pressure to keep their position, because they know 50 young and naive newly qualified pharmacists are ready to swoop in and snatch it from them.

Of course, students who don't get a pre-reg place can not sit the pre-reg exam or ever hope to become pharmacists. This degree is proving to be a complete waste.

Students beware!

Get a variety of work experience, sometimes they want to see something different. Not the normal and boring, which every other applicant has... 'worked in a Pharmacy for X number of years'. The more different experience is better than just doing one!

Variety of experience doesn't make a monkeys difference. There are simply not enough pre reg places or qualified places to go around now. The situation is very serious.

I am a 3rd year student who is predicted a first class. I have 7 years experience as a qualified pharmacy technician, and yet I can not secure a pre-reg position. This is a complete nightmare. My applications were checked and double checked and I was very judicious with the content, yet I am being turned down for 'sheer volume.'

If students want a pre-reg place, they need to corner themselves into a summer position with Boots, Morrisons, Co-op or Lloyds etc in year 1 and 2. Without it, you are thrown to the wolves. This means either not being paid for work over summer, or being punished if you're international and go home / work abroad. Or like me, work for a different company that does not run summer-> pre-reg progression options. Other companies don't seem to care about your experience elsewhere.

Of course, getting summer placements for little or no pay is itself highly competitive. I wish I had never started down this long, difficult and extremely expensive road. There are not enough jobs to go around, and this is only the start. The market is soon to become completely saturated and you will be lucky to get a job. Any jobs available will be a 'race to the bottom' with pharmacists dealing with terrible working conditions and pressure to keep their position, because they know 50 young and naive newly qualified pharmacists are ready to swoop in and snatch it from them.

Of course, students who don't get a pre-reg place can not sit the pre-reg exam or ever hope to become pharmacists. This degree is proving to be a complete waste.

Students beware!

Yeah I agree it's serious but it's even more serious for the people who just have one experiences. An example - 2 candidates, identical degree classification. Which would they pick, one has been working in different countries gathering a variety of experiences and done a plethora of work in a pharmacy. Then you have another candidate who has been working in a pharmacy for 10 years. Number one would get the job hands down!

Although I agree the situation is getting bad, and even worse every year. More schools, more graduates = less jobs, albeit unfortunate - what are the Pharmaceutical society/bored going to do?

The pharmacy board says it cannot do anything about it at all. They say only the government and Department of Health has the power to control numbers in terms of enforcing caps on pharmacy student numbers. The pharmacy board says only if they present a strong enough argument to the government about the situation then something might happen. At the moment no such thing has taken place and it is unlikely that it will as surely they would have anticipated student numbers out numbering no of pre reg places available -yet they did nothing.

college80, what about moving to places like Canada, Australia, new Zealand, etc. Not sure how bad the situation is over there.

But how come unis like Aston get 100% graduate employment almost every year???