CPD for Pharmacy Training Providers
If you train pharmacists or pharmacy technicians and you're wondering whether your course needs an official stamp before it 'counts', here's the honest answer: the GPhC doesn't maintain an approved list of CPD providers, and neither do the RPS or APTUK. What they require is evidence — a clearly scoped course, defined outcomes, and a certificate that stands up when a GPhC inspector reviews someone's fitness-to-practise record. Every pharmacy trainer we speak to arrives at the same question: what actually gets checked?
What CPD accreditation actually means for a pharmacy training provider
The GPhC sits at the centre of CPD obligations for pharmacy professionals in Great Britain, and its fitness-to-practise standards make clear that pharmacists and technicians must keep their knowledge current. Critically, GPhC inspections assess CPD records as part of those standards, which means learners need documentation that stands up to scrutiny rather than a simple course attendance note. The RPS CPD framework adds a structured approach to planning, recording and reflecting, particularly among clinical and hospital pharmacists, while APTUK sets equivalent expectations for pharmacy technicians.
None of these bodies maintains an approved list of course providers. What matters is whether the learning activity is relevant, reflects on practice, and is properly recorded — which shifts the emphasis from who delivered the training to how well it's evidenced. That's a real opportunity for independent trainers: presenting a course with a clearly defined scope, stated outcomes and a verifiable certificate makes a material difference to uptake among pharmacy professionals who are, by training, cautious about quality.
Pharmacy CPD covers ground including clinical pharmacy, medicines optimisation, patient counselling, and pharmacy law and ethics — reflecting how differently a community pharmacist running medication reviews and a hospital pharmacist in a specialist oncology unit actually work. Specialist trainers in areas such as antimicrobial stewardship, controlled drug regulations or consultation skills often carry expertise that generalist providers lack, and that expertise has genuine value once it's packaged with the same rigour pharmacy professionals apply to their own practice.
Open CPD offers a simple 3 step process for you
Run your pharmacy CPD session, workshop or course as you already do.
Log in, set up the course profile, outcomes, hours, delivery mode, and accredit with one click.
Branded CPD certificates and digital badges are generated instantly for every learner.
What learners and employers actually check
Pharmacy professionals are cautious by nature and by training, and a course with a clearly defined scope, stated learning outcomes and a verifiable certificate makes a material difference to uptake. Trainers who can't demonstrate that a course was coherently designed — even when the content itself is excellent — often find that busy pharmacists and technicians look elsewhere for their CPD.
Each certificate carries Aims, Skills and Outcomes alongside a unique verification URL, which is far more defensible than a PDF with a course title and a date if a GPhC inspector reviews someone's CPD record. It gives the pharmacy professional something meaningful to add to a development portfolio — a document that describes what was intended, what was learned, and what the learner can now do differently.
Each certificate resolves to an achievement page anyone can open, no login, no PDF attachment.
Your logo and course name lead. Certificates are powered by Open CPD, issued by you.
Once issued, the record is stored immutably and stays tamper-proof, the date and detail cannot drift.
How this plays out for pharmacy training providers
A community pharmacist extending into structured medication reviews has very different learning needs from a hospital pharmacist working in a specialist oncology unit, and pharmacy CPD needs to serve both. Specialist trainers covering antimicrobial stewardship, controlled drug regulations or consultation skills are often filling gaps that generalist training organisations don't reach, provided their courses carry the same documentation rigour the profession expects.
Open CPD doesn't replace GPhC registration — it documents the CPD you're already required to keep track of
Pharmacy is a regulated profession, and nothing here changes that — the GPhC sets fitness-to-practise standards, and pharmacists and technicians remain accountable to it directly. What the GPhC doesn't do is maintain an approved list of CPD course providers or review course content in advance. Open CPD sits alongside that framework: a structured way to define outcomes and issue a certificate with a permanent verification record, so the CPD hours your learners already have to log are backed by something a GPhC inspector can check independently.
Accredit your first pharmacy course this week
Ready to see exactly how the structure comes together, aims, skills, outcomes, and the verification record that ties it all together? [How It Works](https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/) walks through the full mechanism. Or [start now](https://open-cpd.com/opencpddemo/) and set up your first pharmacy course profile in minutes.