Upskilling our Pharmacy Workforce
School of Applied Science
Published on 04 Aug 2017
Dr Amy Khor spoke about how the role of pharmacy technicians will expand to provide more specialised care to patients.
In Singapore, pharmacy technicians play an essential role in supporting the pharmacists in dispensing medicines to patients, and are a much-needed talent pool as the population ages.
Our School of Chemical & Life Sciences (SCL) collaborated with the Ministry of Health to up-skill the pharmacy support workforce through the launch of the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme (ELP) that leads to an Advanced Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sciences. This 18-month structured work-learn programme aims to enhance core competencies of pharmacy technicians so that they can take on bigger roles. For instance, they can contribute in areas of quality assurance and medication safety to reduce medication errors.
Currently, 24 polytechnic graduates are enrolled in the SkillsFuture ELP programme after going through rigid selection processes by their respective institutions. A total of 13 organisations including Tan Tock Seng Hospital, National Cancer Centre and National Healthcare Group Pharmacy participated in this programme.
The new programme was officially launched by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources & Ministry of Health at the inaugural Pharmaceutical Sciences forum held at NYP on Wednesday. A joint polytechnic initiative, this forum exposes students to the different career options in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences through informative talks and networking sessions with industry partners.