Chris Bennett: Getting real about education

Speed of change has always created a struggle for policy makers but as the Education Strategic Review reaches another breakpoint (In Focus page 6) full engagement will be needed, especially from business, to ensure workable outcomes.

With the consultation now closed the 539 responses reached by February can now start to be examined and used to influence the recommendations put forward by the General Optical Council in its 2017 report.

Optician has been outspoken and impatient in its desire for changes to education that will provide the workforce that the optical business needs. This column greeted the scrapping of the one year transitional period for CET harshly but pragmatism must be the watchword. We are where we are but the process can only be as good as the engagement it achieves with the whole of the optical community. The worse possible scenario is that the optical business sits back and accepts change as something being imposed by regulators, associations and bureaucrats.