Taking on young members of staff works both ways. While students can learn from experienced professionals, their enthusiasm often breathes new life into the practice.
Latest data collected as part of March’s Optician Market Monitor indicated that around 41% of optical practices currently offer pre-reg training.
Of the 59% of practices that did not, the primary barrier was funding. Indeed, 60% of those not offering pre-reg schemes cited financial reasons.
Meanwhile, 33% said they did not have a trained supervisor to even entertain the possibility of having trainees, and 7% reported a lack of demand from potential pre-reg students.
Of the Market Monitor respondents that did offer a pre-reg placement in their practice, three-quarters had subsequently trained to be supervisors, which demonstrated the professional appetite to pass on skills when the opportunity presented itself.
Market Monitor also set out to gauge the potential benefits of taking on pre-reg trainees. On an altruistic level, ‘you can transfer your experience and skills’ was the main benefit of offering places, being cited by 90% of respondents.
Meanwhile, ‘To further your own clinical and professional skills’ was paramount for 79% of eye care professionals. Being able ‘to help your practice recruit young optometrists’ was of utmost importance to 74% of respondents, while giving back to the profession was a key benefit for 68% of practitioners.
Asked about the quality of pre-reg trainees, there were encouraging signs that the Scheme for Registration and university optometry courses were setting high standards.
Of those surveyed in Market Monitor, 42% opined that the quality of pre-reg trainees was improving. The same number thought there was no change in the quality of students but 17% said they were getting worse.
The results have particular significance given the recent wave of new optometry courses in England and Scotland, including at the University of Hertfordshire, where a four-year Master in Optometry course was launched in 2014. It provided undergraduates the chance to complete their practical placements across community and hospital settings in both years three and four of their studies.
Market Monitor found out that 69% of respondents thought the four-year MOptom course, with placements in years three and four, was a better way to train optometrists.
Four years on from the birth of the Hertfordshire course though, it was announced this year that 29 out of the 40 students on the Masters course – 70% – had opted to complete their practical placement at Specsavers.
Indeed, for some time now the independent sector has been grappling with the tendency of young optometrists to select multiple settings as a launch pad for their career in optics.
Tellingly, of the 62 qualified optometrists contributing to Market Monitor, 48% had completed their own pre-reg placement in a multiple setting. Of the remainder, 37% had chosen an independent practice for their pre-reg year, and 15% had trained in the hospital setting.
Given the qualified status of respondents in the Optician Market Monitor, it was possible to compare and contrast how the multiple/independent divide has evolved over the years, by looking at the preferences of current trainees.
And the surge to multiple practices has accelerated, according to the College of Optometrists’ latest pre-registration trainee analysis report, spanning June 2014 to August 2016.
It found that 85% of pre-reg placements were in multiple practices for the current cohort – 37% higher than the established optometrists in Market Monitor. Just 9% of the cohort completed their pre-reg with an independent and only 9% chose the hospital setting.
Of the multiples attracting optometry students between 2014-16, Specsavers offered 52% of the places, with 19% at Boots Opticians and 12% completed at Vision Express.