Someone told me that a pharmacy extern works for free just to have the privilege to apply to be a pharmacy technician in the future and that they actually did this program at WAGS. Do they still actually do this? What a joke. No raises, $46/hr, and now recruiting free techs? WAGS might be worst now
Walgreens "Pharmacy Extern"
- Thread starter ldiot
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This would seem of questionable legality, but I guess it would depend on how it was set up. There is a reason why there is a minimum wage law, and "free" is definitely below the minimum wage. The program would have to be set up to be educational, if it were just about "job training", then they would have to pay the employee for their time spent training, just like they do technicians and everyone else they hire.
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Isn’t this what you get set up with when you go to pharmacy technician vocational school?
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Oh is OP actually talking about a pharmacy extern program as part of graduation requirements? I was thinking pharmacy intern.
OP, yes, "externships" or "clinicals" are IPPE/APPE, whatever they call them these days, are scheduled through your college, because you receive college credit for them. Just as with any college class, not only do you *NOT* get paid...you also pay full tuition to the school for the privilege of working for free. When I did my externships for my BSpharm, we had to do 3-5 week long externships, one in retail, one in hospital, and one in a clinical department. Of course, Walgreens was one of the sponsor for the retail externships.
And LOTS of college degrees require similar programs, where the student pays full tuition to do an "internship" (teachers for one.) Almost every college degree allows optional internships where students pay, to work for free at a local business.
The difference is, it's "training", and most of the time the student will not be contributing enough work to offset the training they receive.
OP, yes, "externships" or "clinicals" are IPPE/APPE, whatever they call them these days, are scheduled through your college, because you receive college credit for them. Just as with any college class, not only do you *NOT* get paid...you also pay full tuition to the school for the privilege of working for free. When I did my externships for my BSpharm, we had to do 3-5 week long externships, one in retail, one in hospital, and one in a clinical department. Of course, Walgreens was one of the sponsor for the retail externships.
And LOTS of college degrees require similar programs, where the student pays full tuition to do an "internship" (teachers for one.) Almost every college degree allows optional internships where students pay, to work for free at a local business.
The difference is, it's "training", and most of the time the student will not be contributing enough work to offset the training they receive.
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Paying tuition in exchange for the privilege of working for someone should give students good practice in bending over and taking it up the rear. That will come in handy for the rest of their careers so that in itself is a valuable experience....
