In our everyday lives everyone remembers the footballing glories of 1966, the storms of 1987 and the prophecies of doom for the dawn of the year 2000.
Optometrically, there are break points too Ð the Opticians Act 1958, the scrapping of the universal free sight test in 1989, the heady high salary days of 1999.
If early indications are anything to go by, this year will be remembered by future generations of optometrists as the great CET rush of 2004.
As the year gets under way, an explosion of CET has taken place and a breathtaking number of points are on offer. This all coincides with the conclusion of plans for the introduction of compulsory CET managed by Act e-learning (News January 9).
Early indications suggest that Act may be planning to levy charges on those delivering CET courses, those providing CET content and those wanting to register CET credits.
Could it possibly be that those two facts are related? Will 2004 herald a headlong rush into CET where providers and professionals hungrily hoover up all the CET credits on offer?
Under the current College of Optometrists' guidelines, professionals are expected to earn 30 points over a three-year period. Perhaps earning, and offering, 30 points this year under the current open and 'free' structure will be more appealing than waiting to take part in CET under what threatens to be a more onerous regime.
Storing up three years of credits will do wonders for knowledge in the next 12 months but what of the subsequent two years? When levying charges, Act will do well to ponder that.
In the meantime, there's points in them thar hills.For a full listing of RBI titles http://www.reedbusiness.comThe great CET rush optician published every Friday © 2004 Reed Business Information Limited at Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. Telephone 020 8652 3500. Fax 020 8652 8993. Printed in Britain by Williams Press (Berks) Ltd, Cordwallis Works, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 7BX. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office, distributed by Marketforce. ISSN 0030.3968.OpticianEditorial tel: 020 8652 8243 Editorial Fax: 020 8652 8993
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Storing up three years of credits will do wonders for knowledge in the next 12 months but what of the subsequent two years?
It might seem slightly premature, given just how young the year is, to ponder how 2004 might be remembered in future times. Not how it will be remembered by the population as a whole, but on a more local, optometric level.