Education at the College

The Royal College of Pharmacy supports pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists to actively develop the knowledge and skills they need to practise confidently, advance practice, and deliver safe, effective care to their patients and the public.

As the role of pharmacy continues to expand across the health system — with changes to medicines and technology and increased pharmacist prescribing — learning, education, and professional development remain essential to patient safety and public health. Ongoing professional development enables pharmacists to effectively respond to these changes, strengthen clinical capability, and support improved access to healthcare services for communities across Great Britain.

Learning and support for members

Through our online learning hub, members can access professional development programmes, webinars, e-learning, educational podcasts and guidance.

Members also have access to CPD learning articles produced by The Pharmaceutical Journal as part of their membership. We also provide access to mentors via our mentoring platform, supporting personalised development alongside other learning opportunities.

All content is freely available to members and developed with their requirements in mind. We take a collaborative approach, working alongside experts to provide content and resources that are relevant, practical and evidence led.

Guided by evidence and excellence

Our approach is inclusive, accessible and informed by the latest evidence and expertise. We promote excellence in practice by putting learners at the centre of everything we do in order to improve outcomes for patients and the public.

Education and professional development are available to pharmacists at all career stages, from foundation onwards, and across all settings of practice. Drawing on the expertise of our members and wider professional networks, we develop high-quality, trusted resources and development pathways that strengthen practice and improve patient care.

Pharmacy professionals and genomic medicine

It is important that pharmacy professionals are acknowledged as key stakeholders in the implementation, delivery, and evaluation of genomic services.

Training partnerships

This was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Alongside our own education and professional development programmes, RPS has a strong track record as a provider of training on behalf of national health organisations around the UK. RPS has delivered training as a partner to national health organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This work spans clinical and non-clinical skills, and supports the developing role of pharmacy around the UK. We develop training with support from expert practitioners and academics, enhanced by input from our membership, which includes pharmacists in all settings and at all career stages. Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (NHSE) RPS delivered CPD to enable pharmacists to join the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service, where callers to the NHS 111 service can be referred to a community pharmacist for a minor illness consultation or urgent medicines supply. This CPD was funded by Health Education England (now NHSE) and developed in partnership with the Royal College of General Practitioners. This work supported the expanding role of pharmacy within the health and care system. Read the evaluation reports for the first and second phases of training. Research and Evaluation training for research pharmacists (NIHR) The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) commissioned RPS to deliver a suite of e-learning modules to improve pharmacy professionals’ awareness, knowledge and skills in clinical research. Increasing the prevalence of research skills in the pharmacy workforce helps to build the evidence base for new developments in pharmacy practice, whilst creating new career pathways for pharmacists. RPS was one of eight Royal Colleges across a range of health disciplines selected for this work, which aims to build research capacity across the health and care workforce. The e-learning is aimed at pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who have not followed an academic career path or those who have had little or no experience of research delivery to date. Pharmacists foundation trainee e-Portfolio in England (NHSE) HEE (now NHSE) awarded RPS the contract to develop an e-Portfolio for foundation-year pharmacy trainees. The e-Portfolio provides vital support during the trainee year in preparation for the registration exam. It enables trainees to document their learning and development, map their learning and assessment activities, review their progress, and achieve sign off for completion of the interim standards for initial education and training of pharmacists so they can sit the GPhC registration assessment. Prescribing learning programme in Wales (HEIW) Health Education and Improvement Wales commissioned RPS to develop a training programme to support pharmacists in Wales with independent prescribing. While from 2026, all newly trained pharmacists will have prescribing skills, the expansion of prescribing to new parts of the workforce means that training is needed to help existing pharmacists to develop these skills and bring these important services to communities. Through the programme, participants learn to diagnose and treat common conditions and minor ailments, identify ‘red-flag’ symptoms and understand when and how to refer patients to other healthcare services. Clinical training for pharmacist foundation trainees in Northern Ireland (NICPLD) RPS was awarded a contract from the Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development (NICPLD) to provide support for Foundation Trainee Pharmacists in Northern Ireland. The training programme supported clinical learning for 143 trainees in preparation for their registration assessment. RPS has run a programme of revision support for pre-registration pharmacists in England, Wales and Scotland since 2012, but this contract enabled support to be extended to pharmacists in Northern Ireland.