Paul, Gautam Chandra
(2025)
Exploring employability of the newly qualified pharmacist: supporting the transition to registration.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Employability relates to the journey of an individual from education to employment and their ongoing career journey. Within Higher Education, embedding employability within undergraduate curricula is a key priority area, ensuring graduates are workforce ready. However, there are a range of stakeholders with a vested interest in employability, resulting in varying definitions, perspectives and measures of employability. A scoping review was conducted to describe the current literature about employability in pharmacy at the point of registration and to highlight gaps in knowledge in this area. The scoping review found scarce literature related to employability at the newly qualified pharmacist (NQP) stage. Transitions and terms linked with practice appeared to resonate greater with the pharmacy profession compared to employability potentially due to their meaning and importance.
This study aimed to explore the concept of employability for NQPs, to determine the employability characteristics (knowledge, skills and attributes) for newly qualified pharmacists to be work-ready upon registration. This enabled recommendations to be made for pharmacist education and training and to inform workforce planning developments for the pharmacy profession in the UK.
An exploratory study design was employed to gather qualitative data using semi-structured interviews. A total of 39 interviews were undertaken with NQPs, employers of NQPs, and other stakeholders. The interviews explored participant views on NQPs’ employability and the associated knowledge, skill and attribute requirements, pharmacy education and training, and recruitment and selection processes. Data were reflexively thematically analysed. The results from the thematic analysis highlighted the importance of employability for the profession, potential implications for education and training, and the necessary employability characteristics. The analysis also highlighted the relationship between recruitment and selection processes and employability.
Drawing together the participant views of employability and the literature, a definition of employability at the NQP stage is proposed: the building and use of career management skills for job application, possession and use of human capital for job acquisition, and the sustaining of work through fulfilling the requirements of the job and adoption of a reflective identity. Employability is an important concept that must be understood and embedded in the profession. The findings from the study call for a collaborative and profession-wide approach to address employability as part of workforce policy.
Essential to prepare and support NQPs for the world of work, employability must be embedded throughout education and training. Employability should be explicitly included in the GPhC standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists. The profession must ensure that newly qualified pharmacists are effectively trained and recruited from the point of entry onto the programme through to registration as a pharmacist.
Employability characteristics for a NQP can be understood as knowledge, skills, attributes and reflective practices, examples of which were described by participants and appear in the literature. These examples can be used practically as indicators for the purposes of teaching, learning, assessment, development and recruitment. Embedding of employability within the MPharm requires greater focus on learning how to learn, than possession of knowledge, particularly to support the idea of ongoing personal development. Foundation training providers must recognise their role in enabling independent practice. This will enhance the training experience and enable the NQP to practise safely and independently on registration.
There must be increased careers support to scaffold the development of the student pharmacist to NQP and beyond, enabling them to meet their career aspirations. Employer requirements must align with careers support, and recruitment and selection processes, so that prospective employees are clear in their expectations.
This study has highlighted key recommendations for the profession. Firstly, employability must be part of workforce planning discussions. This should be in the form of a profession wide roundtable event that discusses employability based on the findings of this study, and goals set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Secondly, as employability development must be part of pharmacy education, the AdvanceHE framework for Embedding Employability should be used as the basis for reviewing pharmacy education. Employability also needs to be situated within the outcomes. This will inform curriculum design, policy and practice as well as student support.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Boardman, Helen
Bridges, Stephanie |
| Keywords: |
employability, career success, independent practice, preparedness to practice, vocational guidance, pharmacy, pharmacist |
| Subjects: |
R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica |
| Faculties/Schools: |
UK Campuses > Faculty of Science > School of Pharmacy |
| Item ID: |
82770 |
| Depositing User: |
Paul, Gautam
|
| Date Deposited: |
11 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| Last Modified: |
11 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/82770 |
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