In order to be admitted to the Federal Professional Examination for Pharmaceutical Operations Assistants with a Federal Certificate, applicants must fulfill the following requirements:

• Federal Diploma of Vocational Education and Training (Federal VET Diploma in Pharmacy or Federal VET Diploma in Pharmacy or equivalent)

and

• At least 3 years of professional experience in a pharmacy in Switzerland

Pharmaceutical business assistants mainly work in public pharmacies on the instructions of pharmacists and carry out a wide range of qualified activities. In addition to advising customers and selling medicinal products, medicines, cosmetics and other products, they are also responsible for invoicing and correspondence, accounting and stock management as well as purchasing goods. You will share responsibility for marketing and staff management.

Within one year, interested parties can prepare for the Federal Diploma of Higher Education in Pharmaceutical Operations Assistance. They take part in an eight-lesson preparation course once a week. In addition, there is self-study, i.e. the time you have to invest in exam preparation, class follow-up and homework. You can expect to spend around six to eight hours a week on self-study.

The field of activity of pharmacy business assistants with a Federal Diploma of Higher Education is wide-ranging and is also reflected in their professional competencies. For example, they are involved in advising customers and supporting other pharmacy employees in sales, are responsible for planning and implementing marketing concepts and measures, for price calculation, apprentice training, continuing education, further training, work process optimization, planning measures in occupational and operational safety and profitability analysis based on key figure calculations and the resulting action planning.

The Pharmaceutical Operations Assistant course is a continuing education, further training course offered in preparation for the Federal Professional Examination (FPE).

The Federal Diploma of Higher Education in Pharmaceutical Operations Assistance is divided into five parts, which are taken orally or in writing. Anyone who does not pass the examination can repeat it twice, but only those parts of the examination with unsatisfactory results. The examination parts are Pharmacy management with a three-hour written examination, marketing and sales; employee management; and business organization, each with a half-hour oral examination, as well as finance and accounting with a two-hour written examination.