Council rejects call to adopt CPD acronym

Calls from the College of Optometrists to drop the term CET in favour of CPD received a recommendation of rejection at the General Optical Council yesterday (25.11.10).

A discussion on the implem-entation of the revalidation scheme included the College's proposal to drop the term 'continuing education and training' in favour of the more commonly used 'continuing professional development'. The proposal was made as part of the GOC efforts to introduce revalidation for the profession and was first discussed at a meeting of optical body chief executives and stakeholders earlier this month.

In its document, suggesting the change, the College wrote that all other health regulators used CPD and adopting the same language would help optics be better understood and gain influence. It suggested CET indicated a 'tick box' exercise while CPD 'signals a forward-looking approach'.