Fifth-year secondary school student Ruben Massey says more needs to be done to inspire Wyoung people to take up pharmacy as a career and to provide a straightforward career path
With a wide range careers and courses open to young people, most industries have been investing heavily in the promotion of their vocation to students of all ages. Information technologies are a notable example. As a senior cycle student, I see that each term there is a talk or career fair related to software or hardware development. Other professions have followed suit, with an emphasis on making the career feel practical and easy to pursue.
However, a noticeable exception is the field of pharmacy, where few resources seem to go towards engaging with young people who may be interested in a pharmaceutical career. While many other healthcare professions, including medicine, enjoy greater promotion and hence popularity — and are consequently seen as among the best courses to pursue — pharmacy lags behind, with much lower application rates. Up to three times lower, according to statistics from the Central Applications Office (CAO). While the CAO organises its application rates by category rather than course, skewing these figures slightly, the stark difference is a great illustration of the current ravine in popularity between pharmacy and other careers.
Cornerstone
However, despite being seen as a less desirable career option than in the past, pharmacy remains an indispensable cornerstone of the Irish healthcare system — without pharmacists, the modern system is paralysed. Part of the decline in attracting new pharmacists may be attributed to the nature of the pharmacist’s work, where despite community pharmacists being the primary
point of contact regarding healthcare for many people, they are perceived as less prestigious than doctors, who are seen as the monoliths of healthcare.
But while a variance in perceived prestige is almost certainly a factor, there is also a more structural and foundational problem, which is the lack of a simple, straightforward path into pharmacy as a career.
Having done a lot of research into a future career in pharmacy — including options for study, accommodation, and requirements — I can attest to the clunky and convoluted nature of the path. This is particularly frustrating as, in contrast, our neighbours to the east in the UK have much better supports and guides in place for their would-be pharmacists.
There is a night and day difference between the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland’s page on studying pharmacy and that of the NHS, which has a more modern, robust, and user-friendly page. The NHS website also offers other features such as job comparison and case studies on each role to help showcase the depth of pharmacy as a career.
Quality and passion
I believe that if we continue here without these kinds of supports for prospective students, we risk a possible decline in the quality and passion of future pharmacy students, despite the recent opening of three new pharmacy courses at the University of Galway, the Atlantic Technological University, and the South East Technological University, which as the newest course will take in its first students next year in 2026.
These additional courses have considerably increased the flow of domestic pharmacy students, adding a combined approximate number of 120 places to the previous trio of Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College, and University College Cork, each catering to about 80 students.
However, this welcome development, with an almost 50 per cent increase in places, remains part of a system that has a lacklustre promotion of pharmacy as a career. A sizable increase in spots without a proportional boost to applicant numbers will, I think it is reasonable to assume, lead to problems due to people who are less eager and passionate about pharmacy being the nation’s future stewards of healthcare, causing weaknesses in the system and making mistakes more commonplace.
Expansion
We are in a period of tentative expansion — expansion in pharmacy, in the number of future pharmacists (with increased university capacity), and in the future role of pharmacists.
I feel it is crucial as a student to make my voice heard before it is too late. There must be a change in how pharmacy is presented to young people in Ireland — we need more user-friendly guides, talks, and every method that other professions employ to ensure quantity and quality in their student intakes.
I am just an optimistic student right now, but I want more than anything to see more young adults taking an interest in what I feel is one of the most under- appreciated but amazing jobs out there. I truly believe that with a little more visibility, it is fully possible to make more young people feel the way I have felt about pharmacy for the past three years.
Unless studying pharmacy becomes more accessible and better promoted, we risk losing both the respect and efficacy this profession requires.
