Cupertino DailyA Second Chance at a Dream Job
by Jennifer Ishii
Have you recently found yourself becoming a victim of the current recession? Did you just graduate from school and not sure what to do with yourself? Do you want to rejoin the workforce, but aren’t sure how to do that? Foothill College may have your answer to any of these situations.
The poor economy is making it hard for those who want to be employed find employment. It seems that staying in school may be the best option for many of us. Foothill College offers a wide array of technical programs ranging from Respiratory Therapy to Real Estate Management. One in particular that means a lot of to me is their ASHP-accredited Pharmacy Technician program.
A pharmacy technician studies at Foothill College
I admit that I am a student in this program, so please excuse me if I start to sound a bit biased. I hope that the information I present here will lead you to make your own decision whether or not this would be an ideal option for yourself.
Let’s start with some background for this career. What exactly is a Pharmacy Technician? Well, to put it simply, a Pharmacy Tehcnician is an assistant to a Pharmacist. Not to alarm anyone, but this means that the prescription you pick up from your pharmacy of choice was actually taken from the stock shelf, counted out, and labeled by a Pharmacy Technician, whose work was later checked off by a Pharmacist. With an increasing number of pharmaceuticals entering the market and more patients requiring drug consultations, there is not only an increased demand for Pharmacists, but also Pharmacy Technicians to assist those Pharmacists.
What the program at Foothill does is use nine months (one academic year) to prepare their students for not only registration with the state, but also the nationwide test, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam (PTCE), where if you pass, students are eligible to use the title of Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT). To date, the program boasts a 100% success rate on the national test.
During the course of the year, students can expect to learn about retail/hospital pharmacy settings, IV preparation, drug compounding, dosage calculations, and much more. Students are set up with externships in both retail and hospital settings, so by graduation time, students have had almost 300 hours worth of hands-on experience. Students enrolled in this program have the option of earning either a Certificate of Completion, receivable at the end of the initial nine months, or an Associates of Science degree, which would require an additional 90 General Education units.
Applications for the program are accepted only once a year, with the upcoming application deadline being April 30, 2009. Only a select 35 students are accepted for each academic year. To be eligible for the program, prospective students need to have completed high school, show proficiency in biology, math, and English. The state of California requires a clean background check for registration, which is required to work as a Pharmacy Technician. Students can expect to spend approximately $1,600 for program costs (tuition, state registration, CPR training class, books, etc.). Scholarships are available for those who qualify; the Kaider scholarship is offered to those who are trying to re-enter the workforce.
In the past, the program has accepted highly diverse students. The age range for students is typically 18 to 50 years of age. Reasons for enrolling in the Foothill Pharmacy Technician program vary from those who want to work in the medical field for the first time to those looking to continue their education through either medical, nursing, or pharmacy school. Students hoping to become pharmacists will find that this program provides them the pharmacy experience that is becoming more and more important to get their pharmacy school applications noticed.
Whatever your current situation may be, whether you have always wanted to make a difference in this world or take on a new challenge, now is one of the best times to try to make that happen. Interested parties can contact Charlie McKellar, the Program Coordinator, by telephone at (650) 949-6955. Counseling and administrative services are available at Foothill’s Middlefield Campus in Palo Alto, CA. The program website and application can be viewed at http://www.foothill.edu/bio/programs/pharmtec/.
Tags: foothill college, pharmacy technician
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