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Patient care

Pharmacy Technician

Prepares and supplies medicines under a pharmacist's supervision, and keeps the pharmacy's stock, records and safety checks in order.

Pharmacy technicians work in community pharmacies, hospitals, GP practices and prisons, and are often the first person a patient asks about a medicine. It suits careful, organised people who like accuracy and helping the public.

Also called Registered pharmacy technician, Certified pharmacy technician, Pharmaceutical technician or Compounding technician.

At a glance

Way in
School or apprenticeship, often in pharmacy technician practice, applied science and pharmaceutical science
Pay in the US
$45,750 a year, the medianFor pharmacy technicians, 2025
Pay in the UK
£28,000 starting to £39,000 with experience
US outlook
Faster than average, 2025-2035
Suits you if
You are careful with detail and like helping people with their medicines.

Pay is a guide: it moves with the country, the employer, the sector and the years in the job. Figures from O*NET OnLine (US) and the National Careers Service (UK); see the sources below.

The work

What does a pharmacy technician do?

  • Dispense prescriptions: pick, measure, count and label medicines for the pharmacist to check.
  • Check that each prescription is complete, legal and accurate before it is made up.
  • Order and rotate stock, track expiry dates and store medicines at the right temperature.
  • Answer questions about medicines and pass harder ones on to the pharmacist.
  • Prepare sterile products such as injections or chemotherapy in hospital aseptic units.

Where they work

  • Community pharmacies
  • Hospital pharmacies
  • GP practices
  • Prison healthcare services
  • Medicines manufacturing units

Skills

The skills a pharmacy technician needs

  • Accuracygetting names, doses and labels right every time
  • Medicines knowledgecommon drugs, what they treat and their brand names
  • Pharmacy calculationsdoses, quantities and dilutions
  • Customer carecalm, clear advice at the counter
  • Confidentialityhandling patient records with discretion
  • Organisationmanaging stock and pharmacy computer systems

Route in

How to become a pharmacy technician

  1. Start as a pharmacy assistant or trainee with school-leaver qualifications in English, maths and science.
  2. Train on the job through an approved course or apprenticeship that combines pharmacy work with study.
  3. In the UK, join the register of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) once your approved training is complete.
  4. Move on to roles such as accuracy checking, aseptic services or medicines management with further training.

Degrees people take

  • Pharmacy technician practice
  • Applied science
  • Pharmaceutical science

In the US, each state sets its own rules; some states and many employers ask for a national certificate such as the CPhT.

Practise for it

The quizzes and tools that fit

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Sources

Where the facts come from

Written for biofideX from these public sources. The pay figures are theirs, copied as published, last read 2026-10-25.

Requirements differ by country and change over time; check with the body that registers the profession where you will work. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll correct it.

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