College Diploma - Pharmacy Technician

The Pharmacy Technician diploma is a two-year accredited program leading toward registration as a Registered Pharmacy Technician in Ontario — a regulated profession with defined independent responsibilities.

Coursework covers pharmacology and drug classifications, pharmaceutical calculations and dosage computation, prescription processing and interpretation, compounding of both sterile and non-sterile preparations, inventory management and controlled substance handling, pharmacy law and ethics, institutional and community pharmacy practice, pharmacy software systems, and patient interaction within scope. Laboratory work in compounding and dispensing is extensive, and placements run in community and hospital pharmacies.

Ontario regulated pharmacy technicians independently verify the technical accuracy of prescriptions, which is a meaningful scope of practice and the reason the credential requires accreditation, a national examination and registration. Note that the English requirement is higher than most Humber diplomas.

This is a regulated health profession in Ontario. Graduating from the program is not the same as being licensed to practise: registration with the relevant Ontario college and a certification examination follow graduation. Confirm the current registration pathway for internationally educated applicants before you apply.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The North campus in Etobicoke is its main site, running technology, engineering, health science, business and skilled trades programs in purpose-built labs and shops rather than lecture halls, with three intakes a year and the deepest employer network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Its field maps to CIP 51.0805 (Pharmacy technician). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Humber publishes a PGWP-eligible program list with CIP codes; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.