Pharmacy is a very good career option for many. If you are interested in this career and want to seriously do well in this profession then you must read this article and I am sure you will definitely get a better idea about how to go about it. Pharmacy as we all know is the study of medicine. We will today in this article of ours on student career guidance series about pharmacy. We will tell you how to apply for it, the eligibility for the course, the future prospects in pharmacy, etc.

The eligibility criteria for the course are quite simple. It goes something like this. The course is called B. Pharma or Bachelor in Pharmacy. One must have passed his or her senior secondary (10+2) exam.

The candidate must have had physics, chemistry and biology with practices as subjects. They must have scored at least fifty percent. They must have also had English as a subject. It must also be remembered that the figure of 50% mentioned is a very generic one and eligibility marks or the cut off marks for admission however changes from college to college.

Now that you know about the eligibility for pharmacy course we will tell you how you can apply for the same and where can you get the training. There are many colleges that offer the course. The course is of four years duration. It includes subjects like medicine, manufacturing of drugs, etc.

The best colleges in India that are known for their pharmacy courses are JVD College in Vishakhapatnam, University College of Pharmaceutical Science in Warangel, department of pharmaceutical science in Dibrugarh, etc. There are about sixty recognised colleges all over India that offers this course. No matter which college you do the course from the subjects that are covered are more or less the same. The eligibility also remains quite same all over these sixty colleges. Whenever you select the college just ensure that it is recognised by the state pharmacy council.

Apart from the bachelor degree, there are two more courses. One is the diploma course which is a two years course on diploma in pharmacy for those who cannot afford to spend 4 years in education for the bachelor degree.

For those who even want to study further after the B.Pharma course, there is a two years course on masters in pharmacy.

The students who have done a diploma can work in hospital pharmacy, medical stores, sales representative, medical representatives, etc. However, if you are interested in making medicines with various chemicals and drugs then you will have to complete the four years course on pharmacy. If you want to do the masters in pharmacy then we must say that it is a great idea. It is a specialization course. The subjects that you can specialize are biochemistry, pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutical engineering, pharmaceutical marketing and management, etc. You can select any one of these and do the masters. At the end of the course you will get a M. Pharma certificate. Some students can also go ahead and to the PhD or doctorate in pharmacy too. This will give them much better platform in the profession.

Pharmacy is a profession. This is exactly why on completion of this course you can get a registration number that will register you with the states pharmacy council. This is the number that you will require to practice both as a professional as well as a retailer.

Whenever you select a profession one important consideration is whether you are capable enough to do the job. We will now discuss the qualities that you must have as a person in order to do well in Pharmacy as a profession. Definitely you must have a strong liking for the subject, you must be a hard worker, and patience is a very important quality that you need in this profession. The candidate must have good logical ability and should be able to analyse situations. If one wants to get into the research domain then they must have very strong academic background. For a good medical representative the client must be good with communication. They should also know to convince people. As a retail pharmacist one must know the medicines, should be able to read the prescriptions well and also at the same time must have good business skills. These are basically the qualities that one must possess in order to make it big in pharmacy.

There are many jobs in pharmacy. You can either join a company or start a venture of your own too. It is said that about ninety percent of the population depends on medicines in some way or the other. This is a strong indication of the fact that why experts belive that in the near future no pharmacy student will be unemployed. The best part is that you can also start a shop of your own and give employment.

We are sure that our today’s student career guidance series on the subject pharmacy will help you to understand this profession better and take a decision accordingly. I hope we could answer all the questions that you had in your mind about the profession.