As the autumn begins, many of you will us thinking of ensuring we have managed our three-year CET tally total by the end of the year. I was at meeting at the GOC last week and one of the figures that stood out was that, presently, less than half of all registered practitioners have reached this tally.
When you think about it, this is a good thing it seems to me. Any system that allows someone to meet their tally with the occasional points binge is not one conducive a continuing approach to learning and development. In fact, it might be expected that, if a three-year programme perfectly reflected ongoing points attainment, we would all be short of the total at present and be set for completing our tally by the end of this year. The truth is somewhere in between.
I have already mentioned that next year there is to be a 12-month CET period which will act as an interim before the next three year cycle is to start in 2020. This underlines the fact that changes are afoot and these are likely to be aimed at encouraging a more personalised and focused plan of learning and development for each individual registrant. On a simpler level, for example, someone working primarily in, say, paediatrics or low vision, might be expected to bias their development in these areas. This seems sensible.
So what changes might we expect in 2020? Well, as the deadline is approaching, I encourage all of you yet to do so, to go online at https://consultation.optical.org and add your comments to influence future change. Only then can you be justified in moaning about any future plans. One change I am sure we will see will be the end of the competencies, and I am sure many of you will not miss these.
