Continuing Professional Development for Pharmacy Support Personnel

Structured continuing professional development has been a privilege afforded only to pharmacists for some time; however, this is about to change – Pharmacy Support Personnel are soon to participate in formal and structure continuing professional development through the impending introduction of the formal CPD requirements for all qualified Pharmacist’s Assistants and Pharmacy Technicians.

Continuing Professional Development for Pharmacy Support Personnel

Qualified Pharmacy Support Personnel (PSPs), encompassing Pharmacist Assistants and Pharmacy Technicians, are a few months away from accessing the benefits that come with structured continuing professional development (CPD). Having launched the CPD for PSPs Portal, the South African Pharmacy Council (“Council”) will now move towards finalising guidance documents and ensuring system readiness to enable participation in the continuing professional development process by qualified Pharmacy Support Personnel.

In June 2026, Council hosted a webinar where the Office of the Registrar launched and demonstrated the CPD for PSPs portal to more than 5 000 attendees. The CPD for PSPs Portal has since been made accessible to all qualified PSPs (Pharmacist Assistants (Basic), Pharmacist’s Assistants (Post-Basic), and Pharmacy Technicians) to allow them familiarise themselves with the system and to submit practice CPD entries in anticipation of Council announcing the implementation date for PSPs through board notice, in line with the Regulations relating to Continuing Professional Development.

Council will pronounce the compliance start date for PSPs to start submitting CPD entries through board notice in the Government Gazette and also notify all stakeholders of the annual compliance requirements for PSPs during the course of 2026. Once this compliance date has been promulgated, PSPs will be expected to submit an annual declaration concerning their practice status (that is, to declare whether or not they practise or intend to practice any of the acts associated with the scope of practice of their registration category during a particular year). Those PSPs who declare that they practice the scope of practice of their registration category will be recorded as “practising” and thus, be expected to undertake at least four (4) CPD activities and record those as entries on the CPD portal by a closing date to be pronounced by Council.

Council would also like to caution PSPs not to fall prey to persons who may offer to either submit CPD entries on their behalf for a fee or sell them CPD points. Council’s CPD system is not points-based. While learning can occur by attending seminars, courses, workshops, or reading journals, books and other scientific or professional literature, among many other avenues, the emphasis of the SAPC CPD system is on skills development, NOT points. As such, whether a skill was gained through discussion with colleagues, on-the-job training, or a course/seminar, such professional development activity may be recorded on the SAPC CPD system.

PSPs are encouraged to access the Continuing Professional Development Blog, which was primarily developed for pharmacists, but remains relevant for PSPs at the following web address: www.sapc.za.org/CPDBlog . More resources are also available under the CPD tab of the Council website.