A Commitment to Rigor and Relevance
At the Council on Pharmacy Standards (CPS), our mission is built on a dual commitment: to uphold the most rigorous, evidence-based standards in the profession, and to ensure that the pathways to achieve those standards are clear, relevant, and accessible to all qualified practitioners. A certification’s value comes from its integrity, and that integrity is strongest when it accurately reflects the realities of modern pharmacy practice and professional development.
As part of our continuous improvement cycle, we regularly review not only the content of our examinations but also the eligibility requirements to sit for them. This process is guided by extensive data from our National Job Task Analyses (JTAs), feedback from our growing community of certificants, and consultations with employers, residency program directors, and leaders across the profession.
Our latest comprehensive review has illuminated a clear picture of the modern pharmacist’s career trajectory. It has shown us that competence is built through multiple, equally valid channels—from immersive on-the-job experience to intensive, structured training programs.
Based on this deep, data-driven understanding, we are thrilled to announce that we have updated and expanded our eligibility pathways. These changes are designed to better recognize the diverse ways professionals gain expertise today, creating clearer and more inclusive routes to certification while maintaining the high standards of excellence you expect from CPS.
The Philosophy Behind the Update: Data-Driven and Evidence-Based
Before detailing the updated pathways, it is important to understand the philosophy that guided these changes. Our goal is to ensure that eligibility requirements serve their true purpose: to be a reliable and valid proxy for a candidate’s readiness to challenge a high-stakes examination. They should not be an arbitrary barrier that fails to account for the accelerated learning that occurs in today’s practice and training environments.
Our research and analysis led us to two key conclusions:
Immersive Experience is Key: Our JTAs consistently show that the foundational competence in a specialty area is typically achieved after a period of dedicated, immersive practice where the pharmacist is regularly performing the essential tasks of that role. Our data indicates that one year of such focused experience is a strong predictor of readiness. The eligibility standard should therefore reflect the quality and focus of the experience, not just its duration.
Formal Training Must Be Recognized: The landscape of postgraduate pharmacy training has matured significantly. Intensive, structured programs like PGY residencies, fellowships, and comprehensive certificate programs from respected providers offer an accelerated and formally validated pathway to competence. These programs immerse participants in a concentrated learning environment that is equivalent to, and in many cases exceeds, what is learned over a longer period of unstructured practice. A modern eligibility standard must formally recognize the rigor and value of this structured training.
It is with this evidence-based framework that we have confidently updated our eligibility requirements.
Unveiling the New Pathways: What’s Changing?
Effective immediately, the “Specialty Experience Requirement” for all CPS certification programs has been updated to provide two clear and distinct pathways. Candidates must meet the core Education and Licensure requirements, and then satisfy one of the following two options:
Pathway 1: The Standard Experience Pathway
This pathway is designed for the vast number of skilled practitioners who have developed their expertise through dedicated on-the-job practice.
The Requirement: Candidates must have completed at least one (1) year of professional experience in a practice setting that is directly relevant to the certification specialty they are pursuing.
The Rationale: This update aligns our requirement with the data from our practice analyses. It recognizes that in today’s fast-paced environments, a pharmacist who spends a full year immersed in a specialty area—whether it’s managing 340B compliance, leading sterile compounding, or caring for cardiometabolic patients in a clinic—is well-prepared to demonstrate their competence. This change makes certification more accessible to early-career pharmacists who have chosen to specialize from day one.
Pathway 2: The Certificate and Formal Training Pathway (New)
This new pathway is a landmark addition that formally recognizes the value of structured, intensive learning programs.
The Requirement: The one-year experience requirement is satisfied for any candidate who holds a relevant, active certificate of completion from a recognized, advanced training program.
The Rationale: We are creating a direct route to certification for those who have already proven their commitment and competence through some of the profession’s most rigorous educational experiences. This acknowledges that the concentrated learning and mentored practice within these programs provide an accelerated path to expertise. Examples of recognized programs include:
PGY1 or PGY2 Residencies
Post-doctoral Fellowships in a relevant field
Comprehensive Certificate Training Programs from nationally recognized providers like APhA and ASHP.
By creating this pathway, we are building a stronger bridge between postgraduate education and professional certification, allowing new leaders and specialists to validate their advanced training immediately.
Your Guide to the New Eligibility Structure
To provide a complete picture, here is a clear, consolidated view of our updated eligibility structure.
Core Requirements for All Candidates
First, all applicants, regardless of their pathway, must meet these three foundational requirements:
Education: Hold a Pharm.D. or B.S. Pharm. degree from an ACPE-accredited program (or a recognized equivalent for international candidates).
Licensure: Possess an active and unrestricted license to practice pharmacy.
Compliance: Agree to adhere to all CPS policies and uphold the standards of the CPS Code of Conduct.
Fulfilling the Specialty Experience Requirement
Once the core requirements are met, you must satisfy the experience requirement by qualifying for one of the two pathways below:
Standard Experience: You have completed at least one (1) year of professional pharmacy experience where a significant portion of your duties was directly related to the specialty area of the certification. OR
Certificate & Formal Training: You have successfully completed a PGY residency, fellowship, or other recognized, intensive certificate training program with a focus relevant to the certification.
What This Means for the Pharmacy Community
These updated and expanded pathways represent a significant step forward in our mission to serve the entire profession.
For Early-Career Pharmacists: This provides a clearer and more attainable goal for validating your specialized skills sooner in your career.
For Residency- and Fellowship-Trained Pharmacists: This formally acknowledges the immense value and rigor of your advanced training, allowing you to immediately pursue the national recognition you deserve.
For Pharmacy Leaders and Employers: This expands the pool of eligible, high-quality candidates you can recruit and develop. It also aligns institutional training programs (like residencies) directly with the national standards set by CPS.
For the Profession: This modernization ensures that CPS standards remain robust and evidence-based while adapting to the realities of modern career development, ultimately strengthening the value and relevance of certification for all.
This is not a reduction of our standards; it is a recalibration. It is an expansion of access, guided by data, that recognizes excellence in all its forms. Our commitment to developing psychometrically sound and legally defensible examinations is unchanged. The bar for passing a CPS exam remains as high as ever. What has changed is our recognition of the diverse and equally valid paths a dedicated professional can take to reach that bar.
We are incredibly excited about what these new pathways mean for the future of our community. We invite all pharmacists who are passionate about their specialty—especially those who may not have been eligible under our previous criteria—to review these new standards and take the next step in their professional journey.
Explore your eligibility and begin your journey to certification today.
The Department of Certification, Council on Pharmacy Standards (CPS)