PHARMACY

HOW A STUDENT ASSOCIATION PREPARES ITS MEMBERS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD
continued
she also needs to be a people
specialist. The skills needed to be
able to work within a team, to be
able to withstand adversity, to be
able to think differently or critically
or even to be able to manage a
project or team, are known as soft
skills. In EPSA, we believe soft skills
are an important part of students’
development and they are
fundamental for pharmacy students’
professional success.
Even though the importance of
these skills is widely acknowledged,
there is an imminent lack of
reliable sources of this
knowledge. This is why EPSA
decided to provide soft skills
training sessions to
pharmacy students all over
Europe. During this training,
students are invited to
share their experiences,
while they are provided with
the tools and knowledge to
improve in a particular skill or
set of skills. Every training
session is, therefore, unique, and
participants are challenged in
different ways to make significant
changes in their lives. Pharmacy
students can then change their
habits, including properly manage
time and stress, combat the fear of
talking in public, understand and
carry out all stages of a project, work
in a team overcoming conflicts and
dealing with different personality
types and provide structured and
valuable feedback.
To provide quality soft skills
training to pharmacy students in
Europe, EPSA created the EPSA
Training Project back in 2009. One
key part of this project is the EPSA
Trainers, a group of around 60
dedicated students that devote
countless hours to learn more about
soft skills and how they can teach
them to other students in carefully
designed training sessions. EPSA
Training Project is comprised of
different activities that aim to bring
soft skills to as many students as
possible and ultimately to see these
soft skills included in pharmacy
curricula.
Apart from learning, working
experience is of high value to
become a better professional once
entering the job market. In order to
gain this experience, EPSA believes
in internships, and thus have a
project which solely focuses on
internships abroad for their
students.
The Individual Mobility
Project – how EPSA actively
assures student mobility
EPSA is a great platform for
students to gain more knowledge
about the pharmaceutical world and
to, amongst such a variety of career
paths, choose the most suitable for
them. At the moment, the student
has the knowledge and all the
educational background, but he still
needs to gain working experience
in order to put in practice
everything he learned through his
degree and EPSA. EPSA’s core
mission is still to increase mobility
while providing students with
valuable experiences for their
continuous development. To meet
this value and remain the bridge
between students and
professionals, the Individual
Mobility Project (IMP) allows
students to gain work
experience and to get to
know a new culture.
IMP is the flagship project
of EPSA, which encourages
young professionals to build
up international careers, and
share and gain experience, thus
improving the quality of
pharmaceutical services in Europe.
This projects aims to provide their
students with an experience abroad
in one of the pharmaceutical fields
(industry, hospital pharmacy,
academy and others) for up to 12
months. During this period, the
intern will gain multiple skills which
will boost his employability,
enhance his personal and
professional background and
provide him with a lifetime of
experience.
If you are interested in getting to
know EPSA better or in being part
of one of their projects, please
check the website www.epsaonline.org
where you can also find
the contact details of each EPSA
team member!
Visit the website: www.industrialpharmacy.eu for PharmaTV and Quality
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european INDUSTRIAL PHARMACY December 2016 • Issue 31
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