Pharmacy Technicians fill and label patients’ prescriptions under the supervision of a Pharmacist. They may record details of, place orders for, take stock of, and store medications and medical supplies and deliver them to patients.
Occupation description
Pharmacy Technicians fill and label patients’ prescriptions under the supervision of a Pharmacist. They may record details of, place orders for, take stock of, and store medications and medical supplies and deliver them to patients.
Alternative Title:
- Dispensary Technician
Occupations not considered suitable under this ANZSCO code:
- Hospital Pharmacist
- Retail Pharmacist
- Pharmacy Sales Assistant
These occupations are classified elsewhere in ANZSCO.
Pharmacy Technician is a VETASSESS Group D occupation.
This occupation requires a qualification assessed as comparable to the educational level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate IV or higher.
Applicants can fulfil the assessment criteria for this occupation in one of four ways.
* Your period of employment may have occurred prior to you completing the qualification at the required level. If this is the case, you must have at least one year of highly relevant employment at an appropriate skill level within the last five years. The remaining three years of pre-qualifying period may be within the last ten years.
A positive assessment of both qualification level and employment duration is required for a positive Skills Assessment Outcome.
* Additional qualifications in a highly relevant field of study include those comparable to the following levels:
- AQF Diploma
- AQF Advanced Diploma
- AQF Associate Degree or AQF Graduate Diploma
** Highly relevant paid employment duration (20 hours or more per week)
1-3
minimum years of employment highly relevant to the nominated occupation, completed at an appropriate skill level in the five years before the date of application for a Skills Assessment.
4
minimum 4 years of relevant employment required – Three years of relevant employment (can be outside the last 5-year period) in addition to at least one year of highly relevant employment within the last five years before applying.
Qualification and Employment Criteria
Employment
Highly relevant tasks include:
- Referring prescriptions to Pharmacists and assisting in preparing medications;
- Filling and labelling patients’ prescriptions under the supervision of a Pharmacist;
- Recording details of, placing orders for, taking stock of, and storing medications and medical supplies and delivering them to patients.
Other tasks may include:
- Compounding products under the supervision of a Pharmacist;
- Managing stock levels and inventory in pharmacies or on wards;
- Assisting with medication audits, reports and reviews;
- Supporting clinical Pharmacists in their routine work, such as screening patients or gathering information for Pharmacist review.
In Australia, there are currently no legal requirements for licensing or registration for the occupation of Pharmacy Technician.
Employment information
Employment as a Pharmacist with standard tasks in that capacity cannot be assessed positively for Pharmacy Technician as these roles require a different skill set. This occupation should also not be confused with Pharmacy Sales Assistant (ANZSCO Code 621411), a person who sells pharmaceutical goods (non-prescription), toiletries and related goods in a retail pharmacy. Pharmacy Sales Assistants may accept prescriptions for filling by Retail Pharmacists and process payment.
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