Guild workforce symposium
June 24, 2010
THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia
has announced its intention to
convene a symposium of pharmacy
education and industry
stakeholders in August in order to
consider potential issues for the
pharmacy workforce over the
upcoming decade.
Set to kick off in the wake of the
recent release of the Pharmacy
Workforce Planning Research
Project (PWPRP), the symposium
will be held in the nation’s capital
on 10 August and attended by
representatives from the
Government, university pharmacy
schools and peak industry bodies.
It will also discuss a paper
presented at the Pharmacy Practice
Research Summit (PD 04 Mar)
which predicted a significant
surplus of pharmacists by 2025.
“There has been much industry
discussion about the intake of
pharmacy student numbers at
universities and the ability of those
students to find jobs when they
complete their studies,” the Guild
said in a statement.
“It is extremely important to the
Guild and all in the industry that
policy makers have the best
information available to make the
right decisions about the pharmacy
workforce into the future,” the
statement added.
Funded under the fourth
Community Agreement the PWPRP
identified current and ongoing
workforce demands, and laid out a
“simple” Pharmacy Workforce
Planning Model, on which lead
researcher, Lee Ridout, will brief
symposium attendees.
Due to the timing of the PWPRP
release however, its authors were
not able to take into account the
impact of the Fifth Community
Pharmacy Agreement or the recent
changes to the overseas pharmacist
immigration criteria, both of which
the Guild stressed will be on the
table, alongside the report at the
symposium.
“With credible workforce
projections now available, it is
important for universities and the
profession in general to take
responsibility for planning decisions,”
the Guild statement said.
“Students taken on by university
pharmacy schools must be assured
that policy makers are doing
everything possible to ensure their
prospects of relevant and rewarding
employment are high,” it added.
Click here to view the PWPRP.
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