Health Education England has given the University of Bradford a £400,000 grant to train pharmacy students across the north of England from September.

The university said it “won the money as part of a consortium” with national training provider Buttercups Training and the independent pharmacy chain Imaan Healthcare, which has 40 branches. 

The money will be used to train more than 230 trainee pharmacists working in hospitals during a series of workshops that the university said will “help them fill gaps in their knowledge.”

The university also said Buttercups will support “practice-based supervisors” while the university itself “will take the lead on teaching.”

Imaan has told Independent Community Pharmacist that its share of the funding will go towards staging a clinical assessment workshop in September. 

Dr Gemma Quinn, a senior lecturer in clinical pharmacy at the University of Bradford, said the money was “a huge opportunity for us to showcase what we can do in terms of training".

“Our approach is very much about team-based learning, using innovative ways to apply knowledge, which really helps in terms of preparing students for the workplace, not just in terms of having the necessary skills but being able to interact with a team and make decisions,” she said.

“Additionally, many of our lecturers are still practising pharmacists, so we know what’s happening on the ground.”