NCFE · RQF Level 3
NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma in the Principles and Practice for Pharmacy Technicians
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Total credits132
- Guided learning785 hours
- Units in this qualification21
Awarded by NCFE · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units NCFE registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Actions and uses of medicinesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of how medicines work in the human body
- Understand the uses and limitations of medicines
- Understand the use of standard pharmacy resources to research pharmaceutical queries
Assemble and check dispensed medicines and productsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand governance requirements for assembling and checking dispensed medicines and products
- Understand processes for assembling dispensed items
- Understand processes for packing and labelling prescribed items
- Understand processes for preventing and dealing with dispensing errors and near misses
- Label and dispense prescribed items
- Check the accuracy of others dispensing of medicines and products against valid prescriptions
- Resolve dispensing errors and near misses
Biological principles for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the structure and function of carbohydrates and lipids
- Understand the structure and function of proteins
- Understand the structure and function of enzymes
- Understand the structure and function of the human genome
Chemical principles for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles behind the periodic table and bonding
- Understand the principles behind chemical reactions in pharmaceutics
- Understand the importance of water in pharmaceutical products
Contribute to service improvement in the delivery of pharmacy servicesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of audit in pharmacy services
- Understand the principles of quality improvement in pharmacy services
- Understand how partnership working contributes to improving the delivery of pharmacy services
- Deliver pharmacy services for the benefit of individuals
- Respond to complaints
Medicinal and non-medicinal treatments for central nervous system conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the central nervous system
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of conditions of the central nervous system
- Understand how medicines and non-medicinal treatments are used in the treatment of mental ill health
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment and management of pain
- Understand how medicines are used in anaesthesia
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Medicinal and non-medicinal treatments for gastrointestinal and nutritional conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the digestive system
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of conditions of the gastrointestinal tract
- Understand how medicines and supplements are used in the treatment of nutritional conditions
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Medicinal and non-medicinal treatments for malignant diseases and musculoskeletal conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand different types of human cells and tissue
- Understand the musculoskeletal system
- Understand how medicines and therapies are used in the treatment of malignant diseases
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Medicinal methods for the prevention, protection from and treatment of infectionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the function of blood
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of infections
- Understand the uses of commonly available immunological products
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their health
Medicinal treatments for cardio-respiratory conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the respiratory and cardiovascular systems
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of conditions of the respiratory system
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of conditions of the cardiovascular system
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Medicinal treatments for endocrine, gynaecological and genitourinary conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the lymphatic system
- Understand the endocrine system
- Understand the genitourinary system
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of endocrine conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of gynaecological conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of genitourinary conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in obstetrics
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Medicinal treatments for sensory organ conditionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand sensory organs
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of eye conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of ear conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of oropharynx conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of nose conditions
- Understand how medicines are used in the treatment of dermatological conditions
- Understand the advice individuals need to manage their condition
Microbiology for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the structure, function and classification of microorganisms
- Understand factors affecting microbial growth
- Understand how the growth of microorganisms is monitored and controlled
- Understand transmission of infection
Personal development for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how the role of the pharmacy technician is governed
- Understand professionalism within the role of a pharmacy technician
- Understand how to reflect on own practice
- Evaluate own performance
- Recognise behaviour that does not meet the required professional standard
- Develop a personal development plan
- Contribute to the development of others
Principles for the management of pharmaceutical stockReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand governance requirements relating to the management of pharmaceutical stock
- Understand the considerations for ordering pharmaceutical stock
- Understand how to complete the procurement process for pharmaceutical stock
- Understand how to receive pharmaceutical stock
- Understand how to store pharmaceutical stock
- Understand how to carry out pharmaceutical stock management
Principles of Health and Safety for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the responsibilities relating to health and safety in the workplace
- Understand health and safety risk management
- Understand procedures for responding to accidents and emergencies
Principles of Person-Centred approaches for Pharmacy TechniciansReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand effective communication within pharmacy services
- Understand person-centred approaches in pharmacy services
- Understand the role and responsibilities of the pharmacy technician in relation to safeguarding individuals
Principles of health promotion and well-being in pharmacy servicesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand factors that influence health and well-being
- Understand the relationship between public health and pharmacy services
- Understand how principles of behaviour change can be applied to health promotion
- Understand the role of the pharmacy technician in the promotion of public health
Principles of safe manufacture of quality medicines in the pharmaceutical environmentReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the governance requirements for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products
- Understand the importance of maintaining environments for pharmaceutical manufacture in relation to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Understand how medicines are manufactured
- Understand how to perform calculations for pharmaceutical formulae
- Understand the principles of pharmaceutical quality systems in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products
Receive, validate and issue prescriptionsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand governance requirements for receiving, validating and issuing prescriptions
- Receive prescriptions
- Validate prescriptions
- Issue prescribed items
Undertake medicines reconciliation and supplyReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand governance requirements for retrieving and reconciling information about an individual’s medicines
- Take a medication history from individuals
- Verify the accuracy of the individual’s medication history
- Reconcile the verified medication history with the list of medicines currently prescribed
- Assess individuals’ own medicines or products for use
- Order medicines and products for individuals to ensure sufficient supply
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Assess the quality of radioactive medicinal products
- Certify Product for release under Marketing Authority License into the supply chain
- Determine methods for Pharmaceutical Manufacture
- Determine the suitability of an individual's own medicines for use
- Develop a training programme for staff to ensure compliance with the requirements of Good Distribution Practice Legacy
- Develop, implement and maintain a quality system to control the distribution of medicinal products
- Dispense Patient-Specific Anti-Cancer Therapy Doses
- Dispense medication after transplantation
Where this can lead
Pharmaceutical Compliance Specialist
Your career here isn't just a ladder; it's more like a climbing frame. There are many ways to grow, whether you want to lead people, become a deep technical expert, or move into broader strategic roles. We're committed to helping you find the path that excites you most and provides the most impact.
See the whole journey →Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma in the Principles and Practice for Pharmacy Technicians
21 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by NCFE.
- Actions and uses of medicines
- Assemble and check dispensed medicines and products
- Biological principles for Pharmacy Technicians
- Chemical principles for Pharmacy Technicians
- Contribute to service improvement in the delivery of pharmacy services
- Medicinal and non-medicinal treatments for central nervous system conditions
and 15 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.