I STILL want to be a pharmacy technician at 50

[ICantBelieveIDidThis]

So.

Multiple job interviews for a low grade pharmacy assistant and i got turned down every time because of lack of experience.

As far as I can see, I've got two options.

1. Apprenticeship at £150 a week and get an NVQ 2 - there are two in the offing with college support near to where I currently work.

1. Carry on where I am for now ('admin' role, 0 hours contract) and study for a higher GCSE Maths, in order for me to be able to apply for the trainee position for a job one band above the type I've been applying for.

I still won't have experience, but I'll hsve better qualifications and I won't be as sķint.

Gut is telling me to go for the apprentice position, even tbough running the housecleanved me buzzing.

What does anyone recommend?

Gut is telling me to go for the apprentice position, even tbough running the housecleanved me buzzing.

Gut is telling me to go for the apprentice position, even though running a house and keeping myself together on £150 a week will clean me out.

My head is buzzing.

Can you also study the maths at the same time as the apprenticeship? Can you go on and do the level 3 qualification having completed the level2?

Too expensive.

I wouldn't be able to afford travel to another college, the course fees, travel to work and the college running the apprenticeship course.

The plus side of the current 0 hours contract, is that they are happy giving me one weekday 'clear' as I wanted one day off to do some 'hobby' courses.

The college that teaches the higher GCSE maths offers the course on the same day so there would be no real change.

If you did the GCSE Higher as a distance learning course, you could save travel cost and time, which would increase hours you can out into studying. I'd have thought an online course would be doable for Maths

They do staged payments so you wouldn't have to pay all in one go:

www.distance-learning-centre.co.uk/products/86/maths-gcse-course.htm

put into studying

Have you done any distance learning?

What was it like? Any good?

How long is the apprenticeship for? I have recently completed the basic pharmacy assistant course and it took approximately six months, alongside working in the pharmacy. Maybe the apprenticeship is the best route if there is a length on the term of of he apprenticeship

Distance learning is good for some people not for everyone.

I like it in terms of its flexibility. Esp if working and not given day release to attend tutorials. It's also more affordable. With a subject like GCSE maths if you have all the materials and you can get some study aids from the library to supplement course notes It helps

Depends how disciplined you can be 😁

I did my Pharmacy Tech training in my late 30s. I was a dispenser at Lloyd’s and did the NPA course thought them. I didn’t have to go to college at all and had regular telephone assessments etc with my assessor. It was hard work especially as some units are hospital based but you can do the research and learning on line to get through those modules. Try and go in through Lloyd’s or boots, all hospital based ones are going to be apprenticeships and will involve college, you will also be expected to work full time with one day off for college. If you can get through it in a retail setting then I would do that. I now work in a hospital and would have hated to have done my training at hospital. Hope this helps..... don’t give up 🙌

It's 18 months.

£3.70ph for the first year and then age appropriate minimum wage for the remainder of the course.

My husband became an apprentice at age 37 although his company paid minimum wage from the beginning. Best thing he ever did. Hard going financially but it's an investment.

The apprenticeship would only be for the lower position.

I would gain experience of a pharmacy, gain the lower qualification and set myself up for the higher qualification by gaining the lower one.

If I went for the apprenticeship, I wouldn't need the higher Maths GCSE.

I'd be wiped out financially, though.

Maybe write a list of pros and cons for doing it each way and deciding from there. Including I guess the likelihood of you getting the role even with the GCSE.

In our case, the training itself cost a lot and it would have been knackering to work full time with the amount of hours he'd have to study. We wouldn't have been much financially better off that way, and he wouldn't have had the valuable work experience he's getting now. It's a 4 year apprenticeship, minimum wage for 2 years and then going up a few pound an hour end of year 2 and end of year 3.

Yeah.

Like I said, gut's says apprenticeship.....

gut's saying

How much will you be paid if you qualify and get a position?

I'm in the process of enrolling on the pharm tech course. It's painful. I don't have my GCSE certificates, and my OU degree certificate isn't sufficient so I have to also take functional skills in maths & English alongside. There are no polite words.

Can you get toehold in a pharmacy on the counter? You'd still have to do the HCA course, but that would open the next door.