The General Optical Council’s (GOC) education annual monitoring sector report for 2021/22 found providers were still facing issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report provided insight into the 37 approved education qualifications delivered to 4,534 optical students between September 1 2021 and August 31 2022.
High street opticians were still experiencing ongoing effects regarding the supply of placements while numbers of non-progressing students were higher than normal due to mitigation measures such as teacher-assessed grades.
A failure to provide required placements resulted from the post-COVID recovery plans of devolved administrations while students and staff were still displaying ongoing physical and mental impacts from the pandemic.
On the plus side, optometry qualifications application figures were strong with an average year one cohort similar to the previous year, while dispensing optics applications sustained the 2021/22 cohert increase, when numbers doubled.
Recruitment figures were also found to have returned to pre-pandemic levels, which the GOC described as ‘a significant and welcome development’.
Numbers of trainees on the independent prescribing (IP) courses decreased, although the GOC’s registrant survey showed strong continued demand for IP qualifications, while trainees on contact lens optics qualifications remained stable.
For more insights, visit the full sector report.