Annual Salary
£19,500 to £30,000
Average UK salary in 2019 was £30,378
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Social care or Therapy or go back to all job sectors
Swap to Social care or Therapy or go back to all job sectors
Pharmacy technicians prepare and supply medicines for prescriptions, under the supervision of a pharmacist.
Average UK salary in 2019 was £30,378
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; on a rota
There will be
6% more Pharmacy technician jobs in 2026.
In your local area
Your day-to-day tasks may include:
You may need to wear protective clothing and a uniform.
You could work at a health centre or at a store.
You can get into this job through:
You could do an advanced apprenticeship in health pharmacy services or a pharmacy technician advanced apprenticeship.
You'll usually need:
You can apply for a trainee pharmacy technician position. Employers will often ask for 4 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including English, maths and science, Level 2 Diploma in Applied Science, or equivalent qualifications.
You'll do on-the-job training over 2 years and work towards qualifications which show your knowledge and skills, like a:
You'll need to:
You can find out more about careers as a pharmacy technician from Health Careers and the Association of Pharmacy Technicians.
In a hospital, you could move to:a specialist role like clinical technician, working with healthcare professionals and patients on wards; a specialist area of work like oncology, paediatrics, or clinical trials; research and development
In a pharmacy, you could become a supervisor or manager.
You could also train as a pharmacist through a pharmacy foundation degree, which is a two-year, full-time course. When you finish this course, you can then apply for year two of an accredited MPharm degree.
In industry, you could move into more specialised areas of development and production, or move into sales or marketing.
Another option is to become a pharmacy assessor working with trainee pharmacy technicians.
You'll need: