The healthcare landscape is continually evolving. How can you keep up?
For every engaged pharmacy professional, active learning is a cornerstone of success. Pursuing opportunities for development, embracing change, keeping knowledge and professional skills up to date, and committing to self-evaluation and improvement demonstrate a commitment to the tenets of professionalism.
Continuing education, the seeking out of learning activities that align with your professional work, is one important strategy for pharmacy technicians and pharmacists to keep up to date with the ever-changing pharmacy landscape and demonstrate a commitment to your profession.
Completing learning activities is an important part of the work of a pharmacy professional. Every day in the pharmacy, there is a continual process of learning and applying the knowledge you’ve gained through your practice. Your experiences will play a significant role in helping you to determine which continuing education opportunities will benefit you in your practice.
ACP’s Continuing Competence Program (CCP) empowers and enables pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to continuously enhance their practices and embody the six tenets of professionalism, including being an active learner. It is centralized around a holistic appreciation of the diverse roles and development needs of each pharmacy professional. Pharmacy professionals choose the accredited and non-accredited learning activities they want to complete on an annual basis.
ACP’s competence director, Pamela Timanson discussed how the program has evolved to reflect what matters to regulated members.
“Pharmacy professionals who completed surveys and participated in focus groups for the evaluation of the CCP shared that they value professional learning and that recording continuing education activities as part of the CCP annual requirements was relevant and important to them,” said Pamela.
Continuing education is essential for health professionals to grow professionally and keep up with new knowledge and changes in standards, guidelines, legislation, technology, and emerging trends in public expectations and pharmacy practice. Pamela explained that recording continuing education activities remains part of the annual requirements.
“Being an active learner supports a pharmacy professional in providing person-centred care. Pharmacy technicians and pharmacists use a strong basis of knowledge and expertise to provide the best possible care to every patient,” she said.
Pharmacy technicians are nearing the end of the 2024-25 CE cycle in the CCP portal. They must complete their CCP requirements by November 30, 2025. They will gain access to the 2025-26 CCP cycle in Academy starting in January 2026.
Pharmacists started the 2025-26 CCP cycle in June 2025. Pharmacists are encouraged to check out the updated process for recording learning activities in Academy. They have until May 31, 2026, to complete their 2025-26 CCP requirements.
“We are excited for the launch of the 2025-26 CCP cycle in our new learning management system, Academy,” said Pamela. “This new system provides a modernized and efficient way for pharmacy professionals to record their accredited and non-accredited learning activities.”
