Pharmacy
Pharmacists make a difference to the lives of their patients through an expert knowledge of medicines and health, combined with effective communication and rapport building skills.
To qualify as a pharmacist in the UK you need to complete the MPharm degree which includes a one year paid placement known as the Foundation Year.
What skills will I gain during my degree?
In addition to your subject knowledge, the degree equips you with key employability skills such as:
- critical judgement
- problem-solving and analytical skills
- communication skills
- time management and organisational abilities
- interpersonal skills
- able to empathise with patients
- able to establish relationships with patients and other professional colleagues
What have pharmacy graduates gone on to do?
The graduate labour market remains buoyant for pharmacy graduates. However, it is likely there will be greater competition for pre-registration training places, as a result of the increase in output of graduates from newly established pharmacy degrees.
Our pharmacy graduates secure professional positions largely within the human health sector, as hospital pharmacists, or the retail sector as community pharmacists.
Some MPharm and MSci graduates choose to pursue careers in the private sector with pharmaceutical companies, for example, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, patent attorney or research roles.
Find out more about options after your degree on the School of Pharmacy website:
School of Pharmacy careers pages
Graduate destinations from the Graduate Outcomes survey
You can view the destinations of graduates, who completed the Graduate Outcomes survey, from your course by booking an appointment with an adviser. This can help you to explore your options if you are unsure what you want to do.
Graduate Outcomes is a national survey capturing the activities and perspectives of graduates launched in 2018 and is the biggest annual social survey in the UK.
Find out more about the Graduate Outcomes survey
How can I build my skills and experience?
Employers often seek a range of transferable skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork, in addition to the subject-specific skills and knowledge you will gain during your degree. Below are some ideas of how to develop these transferable skills during your degree.
Work experience and volunteering
Depending on what area of work or role you might be interested in, and where, there will be specific strategies, from speculative applications to formal processes you need to be familiar with.
Work experience - what, how and when
Research opportunities in the School of Pharmacy
Research internship opportunities are advertised throughout the year in the School of Pharmacy.
Announcements about opportunities are usually made through Moodle and emails, and/or speak to your personal tutor.
Nottingham Internship Scheme
We work closely with a huge variety of local and national businesses to bring you an exciting range of internship opportunities, for both current students and recent graduates.
Nottingham Consultancy Challenge
The Nottingham Consultancy Challenge offers the chance for you to gain hands-on experience of managing a short term project for a local business or charity as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
Nottingham Advantage Award
Through the completion of extracurricular modules, the Nottingham Advantage Award helps you develop key life and work-based skills and reflect on your experiences, allowing you to demonstrate your achievements and skills more effectively when applying for jobs.
Students' Union
The Students’ Union offers a wide range of volunteering options both locally and internationally which you can fit around your studies.
Alternatively you could get involved in a society or sports club - there's so many, you're bound to find one that interests you!
Optional placement year
You can now undertake an optional placement year as part of your degree at the end of your penultimate year of study. The placement can be aligned to your degree discipline or related to your career aspirations. Speak to a career adviser or your school for more information.
If you are no longer at Nottingham, you can access work and volunteering opportunities at home. Depending on your location and what you want to do, your strategy may vary so come and speak to us or arrange a telephone appointment.
Study Abroad
The majority of University of Nottingham students have the opportunity to study abroad during their university career.
Nottingham has 200 partners in 40 different countries across four different exchange programmes. These include Inter-campus exchange, University-wide exchange, Summer Schools and school exchanges.
Applications usually take place during the autumn semester of the academic year before you would go on exchange.
Apply for part-time jobs through us
We advertise part-time, casual and temporary jobs on campus and with local businesses. Created just for you, the advertised vacancies can fit around your studies and other commitments.
The vacancies are advertised in two places.
How do I apply for pharmacy roles?
Health Education England (HEE) introduced a centralised recruitment and selection process for preregistration pharmacist posts utilising the IT system Oriel.
It applies to all hospital preregistration pharmacist posts and is optional for community pharmacy preregistration posts.
Through Oriel only one application will be required and applicants can preference multiply preregistration pharmacists posts in both hospital and community posts.
National Recruitment Scheme
Once you have qualified - most newly qualified pharmacists enter the job market between July and August and many employers will target their recruitment to coincide with this. You will need to start your job search before you have finished your pre-reg training.
Pharmacist Support - Looking for work
Alternative career options with a pharmacy degree
Being a pharmacist isn’t the only option if you have a pharmacy degree. For information about alternative careers with your degree visit what you can do with a pharmacy degree as well as our pages on:
Some local science-related companies include Quotient, Source Bioscience, Sygnature Discovery, as well a range of other companies in the BioCity Nottingham science park.
If you want to look at more general options, visit our Career paths pages for information about different graduate roles.
If you would like to discuss options outside pharmacy you can book an appointment with an adviser. This can be done by logging into MyCareer.
For information about careers in the pharmaceutical sector about drug discovery and design, see our page