It can pay good dividends to pursue a career in the healthcare industry as a pharmacy technician in Connecticut, considering the entry barrier, employability, and long-term opportunity.
The Lucrative Healthcare Employment Market
Healthcare is a lucrative industry with substantial growth opportunities for job seekers. An important consideration for healthcare jobs is that their demand remains almost constant, irrespective of external circumstances such as consumption trends or global economy.
There are various aspects which impact inherent career success within a specific industry like healthcare. In USA, one influential aspect is the Baby Boomer generation, which is rapidly aging and is creating unprecedented demand for high quality healthcare, especially for lifestyle diseases and related disorders.
In spite of this high demand and excellent job outlook; the complexity of subjects, high tuition fees and long duration of college education required to make a career in healthcare, act as barriers for many aspirants. Without losing heart, these aspirants can look at the alternate opportunity of making a career in allied healthcare.
Allied Healthcare
Allied healthcare requires much less investment of time and money, provides good employment opportunities, and also offers a respectable and satisfying work profile.
Pharmacy technician is a popular allied healthcare profession. Even the employment outlook for this profession is fairly high – it is expected that the requirement for pharmacy technicians will rise by 20% across the entire next decade. Hence, it’s an occupation with long term positive demand and offers opportunities for regular full time work and job security.
Becoming a Pharmacy Technician in Connecticut
The minimum qualification for a Pharmacy Technician is extremely reasonable – the candidate needs to either have a High School Diploma or General Educational Development (GED) credential. This reasonably low entry barrier makes it easier for job seekers to enter the profession.
Finding a job may not be a major hurdle but starting salaries could be lower in the learning phase. Connecticut does not mandate training or certification prior to commencing professional employment as a Pharmacy Technician. However, considering the impatience of employers with new hires and their demand for efficiency, as well as the lack of interest of investing time or resources in training of new hires; it is advisable for aspirants to undergo relevant prior training.
Pharmacy Training Programs in Connecticut
There are various options available for pharmacy technician training in Connecticut. From community colleges to private training institutions, these different schools offer training programs to suit the learning needs of the candidates in terms of time investment, finances, flexible schedules, practical exposure and placement support. From a few months to a couple of years, these programs can provide crash courses to in-depth learning opportunities. Considering the current job market and high demand, a good course would be one that equips you in a relatively shorter period without compromising on the essentials, provides a good balance of classroom and practical, and provides genuine placement assistance.
Certifications are also available for gaining additional benefits at the workplace such as pay hikes and promotions, especially in larger healthcare setups such as hospitals. Certification agencies include the Pharmacy Technicians Certification Board (PTCB) and the National Healthcareer Association (NHA).
