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On 15th June 2009, the UK Border Agency announced a newly revised shortage occupation list (SOL). For people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and had the aspiration to be a registered pharmacist in the United Kingdom, the new SOL is not something to look forward to. As the name suggests, SOL is a list of occupations which the UK government wants to fill urgently and is willing to open those jobs up for qualified foreigners. In other words, a foreigner will more likely to be granted a work permit if the job is in this list. In the revised list, community/retail pharmacist was no longer included, which means, getting permission to work as one in the UK maybe difficult to obtain. It is not all doom and gloom, at least hospital pharmacist remained in the list.

The change can translate into the imminent over supply of pharmacist in the United Kingdom, primarily in the community or retail setting. This is obvious if one keep track on the number of school of pharmacy mushrooming all over the UK over the last few years. From around 17 four years ago to 22 fully accredited universities providing the MPharm courses. This number excludes five other universities that had yet to churn out any graduates and also two universities that twin with Malaysian counterparts. The number of collabaration courses will inevitably increase in the near future.

If you plan to work in the UK after graduation, this information will be useful for your consideration or reconsiderations. If you plan to do pharmacy, the fact is that you will need to be more than a brilliant student to be able to survive in this profession in the near future, the days of pharmacist having a job for certain will be ending soon. In the UK and eventually in Malaysia.

Editors: The decision of Migration Advisory Committtee (MAC) of UK Borders (UK Immigration Dept) to remove community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from SOL came as a surprise to both students and RPSGB. Apparently RPSGB, the body that represents pharmacists within the UK was not consulted for the decision. However, this decision will be reviewed in September 2009. Hopefully by then, there will be a favourable outcome. Meanwhile, it will be hard to non-EU pharmacy graduates to apply for working visa even if they are offered a place in pre-registration. As an alternative, (as far as we know) they will have to opt for post-study visa which allows them to work in UK for a maximum of 2 years.

extracted from: http://mpsuksc.wordpress.com/category/pre-reg-working-in-the-uk