As technology continues to evolve, healthcare services develop and our ageing population increases demand for eye care services, it’s become even more important that optical education remains up to date to ensure that the sector is prepared to meet the demands of the future. These are some of the key drivers behind our Education Strategic Review (ESR), which has been ongoing since 2016.
As part of the ESR, we are currently consulting on new draft Education Standards for providers and Learning Outcomes for students, which have been developed based on feedback from our previous consultation on the concepts and principles that could underpin optical training and education in the future.
The draft education standards and learning outcomes aim to give education providers more flexibility in developing and running their programmes and are intended to apply to the whole route to registration to ensure that students receive continuous support throughout their education and training.
The consultation is hosted on the GOC Consultation Hub. We seek feedback on the draft education standards and learning outcomes, the proposed timeline for implementing changes, and GOC student registration. This consultation also highlights the link between the learning outcomes to Continuing Education and Training (CET) requirements.
Your feedback from this consultation will help us shape the final Education Standards and Learning Outcomes and consider the next steps for the Education Strategic Review. It will contribute towards our role in protecting the public and enable optical education to remain fit for purpose in the future.