The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has met with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) following concerns and questions from RPS members about the recent proposals on degree apprenticeships for pharmacy.
We took these concerns to both the Deputy Director for Standards Development at the IFATE and the Chair of the Pharmacist Degree Trailblazer Group. In addition to this we will be attending a stakeholder meeting that is being led by the IFATE on May 2nd.
IFATE and the Pharmacist Degree Trailblazer Group agreed with our request to provide much more detail on these proposals for pharmacists.
We expect the IFATE to publish an explanatory note on apprenticeships that we can share with our members soon.
This needs to be followed by a full, detailed explanation of pharmacy degree apprenticeship proposals which must be subject to scrutiny, and opportunity provided for feedback.
We have asked both groups not to ignore the valid questions being raised by RPS members.
Without clarity and detail on pharmacy degree apprenticeships, no organisation, including the RPS, can support pharmacy degree apprenticeships. As a minimum we require any new approaches to undergraduate training to be subject to full accreditation requirements for the standards for education and training from GPhC.
We will keep members updated as more information becomes available.