Pharmacy technician — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Pharmacy Aides · Veterinary Technologists and Technicians · Phlebotomists · Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses · Surgical Technologists · Opticians, Dispensing
In the official classification#
Pharmacy Technicians
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 3: medium preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Pharmaceutical technicians and assistants
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Pharmacy technician
Fit with this page: same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 29-2052.00 (Pharmacy Technicians). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
- Service OrientationImportant
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- Judgment and Decision MakingImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
- PersuasionImportant
- Management of Personnel ResourcesImportant
Knowledge
- Customer and Personal ServiceExtremely important
- Medicine and DentistryVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- Computers and ElectronicsVery important
- Law and GovernmentImportant
Work activities
- Getting InformationVery important
- Working with ComputersVery important
- Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with StandardsVery important
- Processing InformationVery important
- Documenting/Recording InformationVery important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Near VisionVery important
- Speech RecognitionVery important
- Problem SensitivityVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- Critical ThinkingImportant
- Active LearningImportant
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 6 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 5 match at least one. 1 are not in O*NET's list for this occupation. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Prescription intake and data entryEnter patient or treatment data into computers.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Working with Computers · O*NET 31.0Verify accuracy of patient information.covers part of this task · Processing Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: PharmacistProcess medical billing information.covers part of this task · Performing Administrative Activities · O*NET 31.0
- Counting, filling and packagingPrepare medications or medical solutions.O*NET's activity is broader · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Pharmacist
- Compounding and sterile preparationPrepare medications or medical solutions.O*NET's activity is broader · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Pharmacist
- Checking other technicians' workNone of the activities O*NET lists for this occupation covers this task.
- Unit doses and automated cabinetsMaintain inventory of medical supplies or equipment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Monitoring and Controlling Resources · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: PharmacistDeliver items.covers part of this task · Performing General Physical Activities · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Delivery rider
- The counter and stockProvide customers with general information or assistance.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Communicating with People Outside the Organization · O*NET 31.0Process sales or other transactions.covers part of this task · Performing Administrative Activities · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Retail cashier · Retail salespersonMaintain supply or equipment inventories.covers part of this task · Monitoring and Controlling Resources · O*NET 31.0
Rules that bind this work#
Laws, regulations, court rules, regulators' guidance and collective agreements that this page's verified records read — each with the verb that matters and whom it binds. Read from each record by this site's AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26. Official names stay in their own language.
Section 155A.33A
technician product verification programmes, conditional on pharmacists' onsite hours being redistributed to patient care · may · binds an organisation (employer, deployer, operator) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Checking other technicians' work
2018-07-01 · the record →調剤業務のあり方について
item 1: gathering PTP-packaged medicines and counting one-dose packs under a pharmacist's instruction · may · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Counting, filling and packaging
item 2: direct weighing or mixing by non-pharmacists remains a breach of Pharmacists Act article 19 · must not · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Compounding and sterile preparation
2019-04-02 · the record →Human Medicines (Authorisation by Pharmacists and Supervision by Pharmacy Technicians) Order 2025
authorisation of technicians to undertake or supervise preparation, assembly, dispensing and supply; aseptic primary responsibility (from 10 December 2026) · may · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → Checking other technicians' work · Compounding and sterile preparation
handing out of checked and bagged prescriptions when the pharmacist is absent (from 7 January 2026) · may · binds a person (licensed or not) · requires a person to do, decide or answer for it → The counter and stock
2025-12-12 · the record →Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 5 backed by a verified event, 1 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.