Training programmes are filled through national recruitment schemes, and are organised by the statutory education body for each country:
- NHS England in England
- HEIW in Wales
- NES in Scotland
Read the accreditation reports of each of the foundation training programmes
You must apply for a training programme through these recruitment scheme - you can’t apply to individual employers directly.
If you are on a sandwich or integrated course, you may access your training in a different way. Your university will advise you if this is the case, and the process you need to follow.
If you want to start your training directly after you finish your MPharm or OSPAP, you’ll need to apply to the scheme in June of the year before the year in which you will finish. If you are studying an OSPAP course this could be before your course begins.
The national recruitment schemes do not allow late applications under any circumstance. We will receive information about your training from the statutory education body responsible for your training. This will allow us to:
- approve your status as a foundation trainee
- invite you to apply to sit the registration assessment
- confirm that you meet the requirements for registration, when you apply to register with us
We will contact you to let you know you when you can create an account on myGPhC to apply for foundation trainee status.
Find out more about how to sign up to my GPhC and complete your application
See a flow chart of the foundation training application and approval process
If you started training before the current training year but did not finish, or are finishing in 2026, you should have received a letter from us about training, and your eligibility to register as a pharmacist.
If you have not received this letter, please contact us at foundation@pharmacyregulation.org as soon as possible.
Time limits to register
Important: if the arrangements you make to complete your training mean that you will not meet the requirement to complete your education and training within your time limit for registration, please contact us about an requesting an extension at extensions@pharmacyregulation.org.
We will email you an extension request form. We will only send this form once your time limit is approaching, usually 12 weeks before your expiration date.
We may extend the limits if your training has been interrupted, or if you have had to complete it part time, for example because of:
- part-time study
- reasonable adjustments to accommodate a specific need
- maternity or paternity leave
- a serious illness
- time spent serving in the Army Reserves or completing national service
- an international pandemic
We will only grant extensions on the basis of appropriate evidence. This could include evidence from an appropriately qualified professional.
If you apply for an extension and we feel that your knowledge and skills have been affected by your absence, then we may look for evidence of how you have kept your personal development up to date. We may require you to complete additional training or work-based assessment as a condition of granting an extension.
We may also only grant a partial extension to enable you reach the next stage of training, for example so that you can make an application to the National Recruitment Scheme. In this scenario, you would need to contact us again for a further extension if you are still on track to complete the steps to meet the registration criteria.
If you think your circumstances may mean you can have the time limits extended, please get in touch.
See the time limits
Contact us
If you are completing training as part of the previous scheme, you can refer to the 2024/25 foundation training manual
If you have completed an MPharm which meets the previous (2011) standards for education and training or are studying on an OSPAP course, you will not be eligible to register as an independent prescriber when you first register with us, regardless of when you complete your training, or sit the registration assessment. You must take an accredited independent prescribing course once you have registered to become an independent prescriber, if you want to become one.
You will be able to complete your training and sit the registration assessment in 2026 and beyond, and you will be assessed according to the 2011 standards when you sit.
In the foundation training programme, you will be assessed in practice against a modified version of the 2021 learning outcomes.
If you have completed an MPharm course which meets the 2021 standards, you will be assessed at prescribing as part of your foundation training. Provided you are signed off by your designated prescribing practitioner, you will be eligible to apply to register as an independent prescriber.
You will sit the same registration assessment as trainees who haven’t completed the independent prescriber education and training- and it won’t cover any independent prescriber-specific content.
In the IETP 2021 standards and IETP interim learning outcomes, several learning outcomes reference prescribing. They outline the essential knowledge pharmacists must have to advise prescribers or prescribe independently.
This knowledge is required by all trainee pharmacists, regardless of their FTY route.
For instance, a pharmacist should be able to recommend a therapeutic monitoring regimen to a prescriber, while an independent prescribing pharmacist should be able to implement it themselves. Therefore, testing therapeutic monitoring in the assessment is fair for all trainee pharmacists.
