BEATRICE – Southeast Community College’s (SCC) Pharmacy Technician Program (PTP) is waiting on the final word from PTCB (Pharmacy Technician Certification Board) on the issue of transferring PTP from SCC’s Beatrice Campus to SCC’s Energy Square in downtown Lincoln. The proposal was given to PTCB in February and PTCB will vote on it on the third week of March.
“In PTP, student numbers are pretty low,” says Elina Pierce, chair of SCC’s PTP. “We’ve been a low enrollment program.”
The number of students enrolled in PTP has been going down steadily, and a majority of students that enrolled in PTP, both online and face to face, came from Lincoln.
When asked for more reasons for the movement, Pierce had this to say: “I think a lot of this has to do with exposure. It’s exposing the program to where the majority of people are and where the interest is. It would expose the program a lot more and we’re the only accredited program in Nebraska, in this whole state. It’s important for us to be in a central location and easily accessible, and Lincoln gives us the opportunity to do so.”
PTP is a relatively new profession. In order to maintain steady growth, Peirce said PTP needs more publicity and student enrollment.
“According to the Job Outlook Guide, the PTP is going to be steadily increasing until, at least, through 2020,” Pierce predicts.
“We need qualified technicians,” she added. “This program allows us to do that.”
“There’s legislation coming down from our certifier, the PTCB. They have laid out a plan for all of these things that a technician is going to have to do in the future. So it positions the program perfectly to be able to meet that need.”