National Pre-Registration
Pharmacist Recruitment

The Oriel recruitment system has been developed to enable all applicants across England and Wales to complete only one application form for their Pre-registration training. Once an applicant has completed and submitted their application form, the next step will be for them to choose which potential employers they would like to complete their training with. In order to do this, the system allows applicants to categorise all the different programmes available to them by: -

The number of different programmes available are likely to be in excess of one thousand therefore a robust filtering system is available to support applicants with their choices. Detailed information on the different filters can be found in section 4.2.3 on the employer guide. This will allow applicants to filter by many different options including sector (primary care/hospital/industry) whether the employer offers Tier 2 sponsorship, location and placement options (a placement used within the filtering system must be longer than 3 months)

The Oriel system is an open access website which means that anyone can view what is available. All new information for future cohorts will be available to view from June of the preceding year. You do not need a log in to view this information. To access this website please click the button below.

During the latter part of the recruitment process and once offers have been made, successful applicant information will be released to employers directly by the Pharmacy National Recruitment Office. 

N.B Please note that further information on this process will be provided to employer nearer the time of release. 

Please note that you cannot register onto the Oriel system yourself, this can only be done via HEE.

In order to recruit via the National Recruitment scheme, all employers must read and agree to the Terms of Participation and to abide by the HEE Quality Framework (or Welsh equivalent for employers in Wales) before signing up to the scheme. Please read this information available below before signing up to the scheme via our online form.
Please note that once you have agreed to recruit to the listed programmes via Oriel you cannot then offer this place to anyone outside of the scheme.

For employers in Wales you should be approved for pre-registration training by the Health Education Improvement Wales. If you wish to find our more, please email laura.doyle3@wales.nhs.uk

The specific markers listed within the Quality Framework for pre-registration training will be monitored.

One of the most important factors in attracting high quality applicants and filling places is how you market and promote your programmes.

You are advised to take time to think carefully about how you describe your programme(s) in Oriel. You should ensure that you highlight any elements of the programme that you feel would be attractive to applicants. An example is included in Appendix 1 of the employer guide. In addition, you can look at other existing programme descriptions by downloading the Pharmacy Employers and Programme information from the current year, this is available as an excel spreadsheet available below.

You may also wish to attend University careers fairs or run local open days.

Pre-registration training programmes can be hosted in a variety of settings; however, each training programme must be accredited by the GPhC and must include a minimum of 6 months in a patient facing setting such as hospital or community pharmacy. All pre-registration training programmes are 52 weeks in duration; however, some training programmes may offer a number of placements within that programme. These placements can include working in a GP practice, the pharmaceutical industry, local Clinical Commissioning Group or Welsh Health Board.

There are several different types of employers within the Primary Care setting including community pharmacy, clinical commissioning groups, prisons and general practice.

Within community pharmacy, there are several different types and sizes of employers ranging from larger ‘high street’ multiples to small individually owned independent pharmacies serving a local population.

Hospital pharmacy employers can range in size from large hospitals to smaller district or local hospitals. In addition, some specialist hospitals, for example paediatrics, mental health, cancer treatment, ophthalmology and orthopaedics, also employ Pre-registration Pharmacists.

If you are not currently an approved training site and would like to consider training Pre-registration Pharmacists, please visit the GPhC website for more information and contact the Pharmacy Lead from your region to discuss developing a programme to support the trainee.