Rachel Marchant | BPharm Hons | Where the buck stops (MD)

Rachel heads up the team making sure that everyone is focused on meeting customer needs by delivering the best pharmacy training that we can. With over 20 years experience in community pharmacy, she founded the company after working for Alliance Pharmacy, Boots and Alliance Healthcare in roles ranging from Pharmacy Management through to Operations and latterly Professional Training. Rachel has a real passion for pharmacy, coupled with extensive expertise in both operations and training enabling her to provide leading consultancy services and develop high quality, easy to use training programs that work. Known for her personable, bubbly and friendly approach, Rachel is committed to improving public health by inspiring and creating well-trained pharmacy team members throughout the country. In her spare time she loves nothing more than cooking up a feast for friends and family! 

You can learn more about Rachel here.

Emma Grace | BPharm Hons | Technician superstar | (Learning and innovation lead)

You can only be a brilliant pharmacist with a great support team. And that’s what we have. Do you? Emma is passionate about support staff being a pharmacy’s greatest strength and their training and development is a great investment that will be returned. Emma spent 13 years in frontline community pharmacy and over 10 years in professional learning and development, with Alliance Pharmacy, Boots and most recently Chemist and Druggist. Her expertise and experience in NVQs and accredited training drives her to develop engaging, relevant programmes with the needs of the trainee and the pharmacy at the heart of everything created. Emma’s cool head, flair for organising a process and eagerness to bring in technology, mean she will always find a solution. The only thing that flusters her is a chance of winning the cricket, but let’s face it, that doesn’t happen often!

You can learn more about Emma here.

Trudi Loader | Everything to everyone (Support executive)

Trudi is passionate about providing excellent customer service for all our customers and trainees. She provides support across all programmes and tracks progress of trainees to ensure they have all they need to suceed. She joined Scientia Skills in 2013, initially as a support executive, and then in 2015, with the team growing, she was promoted to senior support executive. Trudi comes from a background in company accounts and customer service. She worked as a customer services representative for many years which has given her invaluable experience with a range of people. Since joining Scientia Skills she has worked hard to learn about the different roles involved in pharmacy and the training programmes available and this is reflected in the support and advice she provides. She has a friendly, nurturing approach and will do her utmost to help at all times. If she doesn’t have the answer to your query she will quickly get it from someone who does! Trudi is enthusiastic about supporting people which is often facilitated by the wealth of information (some of it useless!) stored in her extensive memory banks! She spends most of her free time with her children, but at the end of a busy day there is nothing better than sitting down with a good book!

You can learn more about Trudi here.

Kirsty Whitehand | Customer all star (Support executive)

Kirsty is our support executive and is dedicated to delivering excellent customer service through friendly, supportive conversations and advice. Kirsty is passionate about helping people. She has a bubbly and happy approach to her work and ensures that every trainee has a positive experience. Kirsty’s recent background is working as a dispensing assistant in community pharmacy and a Medical Secretary in a hospital, before joining the Scientia Skills team in 2016. She lived in Spain for 8 years and mastered the Spanish language, which enabled her to start her own translating company. She did various roles from medical to legal translating, which gave her excellent experience with a variety of people and cultures. After moving back to the UK, Kirsty got the opportunity to train as a dispensing assistant in a local pharmacy and gained first-hand experience, which enables her to give our trainees a more personal response. In her spare time, Kirsty enjoys family time with her children and socialising with friends.

You can learn more about Kirsty here.

Katey Haycock | BPharm Hons | Calculations guru (Pharmacist consultant)

Katey works as an assessor for Scientia Skills, and also helps to develop the pre-reg programme. She provides support and feedback to trainees throughout their learning journey. She is a pharmacist who has had a varied career - previously working for Boots and the former Alliance (Moss) pharmacy chain in a number of roles, including training and development, area management and store management. She now works as an assessor and a freelance writer producing training materials and articles for a number of publications and clients. Katey is committed to supporting people to achieve their learning aims and delivering high quality training materials. She is known for her conscientious, straight-forward and practical approach. In her free time (of which there isn't much as most of it is spent ferrying around her son and shouting encouragement from sidelines) she likes to walk the dog, read and write.

You can learn more about Katey here.

Leanne Beverley | NVQ Hero (Assessor)

Leanne started her pharmacy career aged 15 working evenings and weekends, around school and sixth form (and two other jobs) in a small independent community pharmacy in Coventry. In 2003 she moved to work full time at Monarch Pharmacy in Coventry where she still works today as an ACT and Supervisor. Leanne gained Level 3 Pharmacy Technician qualification here in 2006 and qualified as an Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician in 2008. She also run's a successful award winning smoking cessation service, achieving the highest amount of quitters in Coventry for the past consecutive 5 years. In addition to her full time role in the pharmacy, Leanne’s passion for pharmacy education, training and encouraging others learning, led her to qualify as an Assessor in 2014. Leanne currently assesses a variety of pharmacy qualifications for different providers, including Scientia Skills, The National Pharmacy Association and a number of colleges across the UK. Leanne has won a number of awards throughout her career in pharmacy and now has over 16 years of experience within the community sector. She writes a monthly column for Training Matters magazine covering a range of topics relevant to pharmacy support staff and is a national officer (Business Development) for The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK. When she isn’t marking work or dispensing she loves DIY, walking the dog and spending time with friends and family as well as organising events for her local Rotary Club as incoming Club President.

You can learn more about Leanne here.

Helen Root | BPharm Hons, FHEA, PGCertHE | Clinical genius (Pharmacist consultant)

Helen is the Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice and the Admissions Tutor for De Montfort University and in her spare time (!) is a freelance training and development writer. She works closely with the team at Scientia Skills on a number of projects, including the development of the pre-registration programme. Helen has over 20 years experience in community pharmacy, holding a number of roles from pharmacy manager, a pre-registration tutor, regional pre-registration tutor for both Alliance Pharmacy and Boots, to her current role as a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy practice. She has a keen interest in Pharmacy Law and Ethics as well as education, training and employability. She has a great passion for pharmacy law and clinical areas of pharmacy and takes great pride in shaping future pharmacists, both in her role as a Senior lecturer but also through the training and support she provides Scientia Skills with their programmes. When not working, Helen loves the theatre. Her other love is cricket, although she is sadly not related to the England Cricket Test Captain Joe Root!

You can learn more about Helen here.

Emma Lewis | BPharm Hons | Practice champion (Pharmacist consultant)

Emma works with the team to help develop and deliver our outstanding pharmacy training. She has over 15 years experience in community pharmacy, working for Alliance Pharmacy and Boots before joining Scientia Skills. Emma has experience in both Pharmacy Management and Professional Training and currently works in community pharmacy alongside her role with the company. Emma has a caring and customer focused approach. She is committed to creating excellent and user-friendly training, drawing on her experience in both management and professional development, as well as her role in primary care. Away from work Emma enjoys running and cycling and spending time outdoors with her family.