CERTIFICATION foreign pharmacist career

[malego77 2]

Well, I had a master degree in pharmacology from my homecountry. I moved here since January, 2008. I want to work in my profession but I don't know where to start.

Specially, I have heard that some employers/companies have programs where they can pay for your certification/license but I don't know which ones exactly they are.

If you know any information/experience it would be greatly appreciated.

[웃 910]

You can start by having your degree from Mexico transferred to a degree in the United States. If you have your records, you need to translate them to English, and send them to:

Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc.

PO Box 514070 Milwaukee WI 53203-3470 USA

Phone Number is 414-289-3400

This place is recognized by all American institutions and will transfer as many classes as they can (some classes won't transfer). It costs a hundred and some dollars. Here is the website: http://ece.org/

The thing is that most companies will not recognize a foreign degree so it will be hard to get a job without one.

Edited June 4, 2008 by thegreatgate

[akdiver 3]

You can start by having your degree from Mexico transferred to a degree in the United States. If you have your records, you need to translate them to English...This place is recognized by all American institutions and will transfer as many classes as they can (some classes won't transfer). It costs a hundred and some dollars. Here is the website: http://ece.org/The thing is that most companies will not recognize a foreign degree so it will be hard to get a job without one.

This post is very misleading.

First of all, ECE (and similar companies) do not "transfer" anything to anywhere, let alone to "a degree in the United States." What they DO is "evaluate" your existing degree and transcript and determine their U.S. equivalents - and then issue a transcript-like document that indicates the results of that evaluation. They do not issue a degree, they do not transfer your credits to any kind of degree program, or do anything beyond an evaluation of your credentials.

It is up to you to do something productive with this evaluation. Your choices are basically:

a). Use the evaluation credential as proof of your education for employers who ask.

B). Use the evaluation credential as a basis for admission or continuation of education with a university.

Note that employers may or may not accept the evaluation as valid. They may have their own "preferred provider" for such services, or may not give any weight to evaluation credentials, no matter who they are from (although this strikes me as unreasonable).

Universities are experienced with this kind of thing and usually have a list of "acceptable" evaluators. If you think you may need to complete an education with a university near you, your first step should be to get their list and see who is on it, and then use someone on that list for your credential evaluation needs.

If you have a "licensable" education - such as the OP does - you should check with local/state licensing agencies to find out their requirements. They may have their own list of "preferred providers" for credential evaluators, additional requirements, info on licensing exams, etc.

Note that companies such as ECE generally require a translation of the original transcripts into English!! The university on the other hand did not seem to care (but this may vary). To be successful in this process, I recommend getting at least 4 copies of all transcripts from all institutions. Get one of them professionally translated into English, and get 4 copies of the translation. This gives you one sealed transcript to send to ECE, one to send to the university, one for the licensing board (if necessary) and one to keep for yourself. If you need to deal with more universities or licensing boards, scale up accordingly.

FWIW - our local university had ECE on their list of acceptable credential evaluators, so we used them. We were very happy with the service they provided. Professional, efficient, timely, and useful. They evaluated my wife's foreign transcripts from two different institutions, gave a class by class U.S. equivalent, including title, # of credits and grade. They also evaluated her degrees. This information, along with the original transcripts from the foreign institutions, was sent directly to the university. Using this information, the university accepted her as a graduate student in a business program, and credited her with having completed two undergraduate degrees and a graduate degree. Since she already had a graduate degree, she was not required to take the TOEFL or GMAT tests (which saved us more than we paid for the ECE evaluation).

She has recently completed the graduate program here at the local university and now the education portion of her resume reads like this:

Education (foreign degrees are U.S. Equivalent shown, as certified by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc., Milwaukee, WI)

M.S. Global Supply Chain Management, University, City, State, Month Year.

M.S. Tourism Management, University, City, Country, Month Year.

B.B.A. Management, University, City, Country, Month Year.

B.A. Secondary Education, (Teacher of English & German), University, City, Country, Month Year.

Note the degree type and name for the foreign degrees is as evaluated and determined by ECE, not us. With this on her resume, she got a number of interviews and job offers before getting her current job and before completing her second M.S. locally. Now that she has finished this program and added the local degree to her resume (as shown above) she is getting plenty of interviews, for good jobs. So far, in no instance has any employer or potential employer questioned the foreign degrees, or the note about foreign degrees being U.S. equivalent shown.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[malego77 2]

Thank you a lot for the info.

I have a question, did your wife have to take more classes in the university? For how long?

How long did your wife wait for her evaluation?

I'm afraid that if I don't have a potential employer for now, how do I can chose the best agency to do the foreign credential evaluation in order to have a wider or broader range or oportunities to get a job without have to re-evaluate my degree to meet the requirements for a specific future employer.

I have read that I need to present an knowledgement exam in order to get a license, is that true? Also that I need to pass the TOEFL exam...

I'm so scared because there are too many things to do and a lot of money to pay for...

Thanks for all the help and for the info you can share me.

[tamarae 0]

My DH is a foreign pharmacist from the UK.

Go to the NABP website, and the state board of pharmacy website for your current state. They spell out all of the requirements there.

Good luck!

[akdiver 3]

Thank you a lot for the info.

I have a question, did your wife have to take more classes in the university? For how long?

Um - did you read my post above? It clearly says - "She has recently completed the graduate program here at the local university". To do so, you need to take classes. She did not need to take any classes with respect to her previous degrees - but the latest degree was 30 credits at the local university, which took about 20 months.

How long did your wife wait for her evaluation?

To be honest, I don't remember - but I think it was a lot less than we thought it might be. Maybe a month?

I'm afraid that if I don't have a potential employer for now, how do I can chose the best agency to do the foreign credential evaluation in order to have a wider or broader range or oportunities to get a job without have to re-evaluate my degree to meet the requirements for a specific future employer.

Impossible to say. Best best is to see if your state's licensing board has a list. If not, use one off the list at the local university. That way, if you take any classes there, you're covered and if an employer asks why you chose the one you did, you can say because it was approved by the local university.

I have read that I need to present an knowledgement exam in order to get a license, is that true?

I'm sure it is. They don't want just anyone passing out pills at the pharmacy.

Cheers!

AKDiver

[malego77 2]

Sorry for being so distracted! Thanks a lot again, for now we started to get the transcripts from our university. Wish me good luck.

Have nice day.

[farah2005 0]

Hi,

a friend of mine is going through her FPGEE It's the equivalence test for foreign pharmacist.

she gave me this link http://fpgee.brighterplanet.org/

hope that helps