Pharmacy Technology

Receiving and verifying prescriptions, entering them, compounding and prepacking preparations, and maintaining drug storage and security — under a pharmacist's supervision, in a retail pharmacy, a hospital or a compounding facility. ⚠⚠ Unlike most short allied-health certificates, this one is REGULATED: section 465.014, F.S. requires anyone who wishes to work as a pharmacy technician in Florida to register with the Board of Pharmacy and to have completed a board-approved training programme. Taught at 30 Florida public institutions.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠ THE BOARD-APPROVED PROGRAMME IS THE WHOLE POINT, so check the approval before you pay. Section 465.014 requires registration with the Florida Board of Pharmacy, and the application asks for completion of a training programme the board has approved. A programme the board has not approved does not get you registered, and without registration you cannot work. ⚠ The statute also limits how many technicians a pharmacist may supervise — one, unless the board's guidelines permit more — which is a real constraint on how many jobs exist per pharmacy counter. Florida's programme is a single block: PTN0084, PTN0085 and PTN0086, Pharmacy Technician 1, 2 and 3, at 360, 300 and 300 clock hours, carried by 21 institutions each. ⚠⚠⚠ Note what is NOT there: unlike medical assisting, there are no occupational completion points and no intermediate job title. You finish all 960 hours or you have nothing to show an employer. Plan for the whole thing. ⚠ 222 of the 225 Florida credentials awarded in 2023 were one-to-two-year certificates; three were associate degrees. A handful of institutions also run it as an Applied Technology Diploma, which is college credit rather than clock hours — worth asking about if a degree might follow.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician

Two of the largest short-certificate routes into health care in Florida, paying within $60 a year of each other and taught at the same technical colleges — and the state treats them completely differently. ⚠⚠⚠ Florida writes down in statute exactly what a medical assistant may do, including venipuncture and administering medication, and requires NO licence, certificate or training to do it. It requires a pharmacy technician, working behind a counter, to register with the Board of Pharmacy and complete a board-approved programme. ⚠⚠ And the medical assisting programme has FOUR labelled exit points you can leave on and be hired at — the pharmacy technician programme has none.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Pharmacist

⚠⚠ A different job. Technician work is useful experience for an application, but it earns no Pharm.D. credit. See the Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician path.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Medical Assisting 38 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The comparison every student choosing between short allied-health certificates should make. Same pay to within $60 a year, similar length, often the same campus — but medical assisting is unregulated in Florida and has four labelled exit points you can stop and work at, while pharmacy technology is state-registered and has none. ⚠ Choose on which work you want to do, not on pay, because the pay is the same.

Medical Laboratory Science 14 Florida schools

⚠ Named because the two get confused and they are not alike. Both involve precise handling of samples and reagents under regulation, but laboratory science is a diagnostic discipline with a long credential ladder to MLT and then MLS, while pharmacy technology tops out at the technician registration unless you go on to the pharmacy doctorate. If you want a ladder, the laboratory has one.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠ Not a route — separate credential, and clock hours do not transfer. Named because pharmacology is the one thing the two share, and technicians who discover they want the clinical side rather than the dispensing side routinely move across. Ask the nursing programme what, if anything, it will articulate before assuming any of it counts.

Pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy) 3 Florida schools

⚠⚠ A different job, not a first step on the same ladder. The technician programme is short and leads to board registration; it earns no credit toward a Pharm.D., though pharmacy work experience helps an application.

Florida public institutions offering this program

30 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Certificate (1-2 years), Certificate (2-4 years). A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Atlantic Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Broward College

Certificate (1-2 years)

D A Dorsey Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Emerald Coast Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Florida Panhandle Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Certificate (1-2 years)

Gadsden Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

H W Brewster Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Indian River State College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (2-4 years)

Lake Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Lively Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Lorenzo Walker Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Manatee Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Miami Dade College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Miami Lakes Educational Center and Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Orange Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Orange Technical College-East Campus

Certificate (1-2 years)

Orange Technical College-West Campus

Certificate (1-2 years)

Osceola Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Pasco-Hernando State College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Pensacola State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years)

Pinellas Technical College-St. Petersburg

Certificate (1-2 years)

Radford M Locklin Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Ridge Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Riveroak Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Seminole State College of Florida

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years)

Sheridan Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

South Dade Technical College-South Dade Skills Center Campus

Certificate (1-2 years)

Tallahassee Community College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years)

William T McFatter Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years)

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.