Chris Bennett: Heading out into the pre-reg year

We may think of the pre-reg period as the start of a life in optics but as Joe Ayling reports in this week’s In Focus it is also inextricably linked to the end of people’s professional careers as well.

Ask anyone in practice over 50 how their career started and they will regale you with stories of their first days in practice and the idiosyncrasies of their pre-reg supervisor. Those stories may make an HR manager’s blood run cold today but they were, and still are, important, character-building experiences on the road to becoming a professional.

Next week Optician publishes its pre-reg guide which will provide essential reading for students embarking on their professional careers. While this will cover the transition from student to newly qualified and the tools required it also looks at the relationship between student and supervisor and the setting in which the pre-reg year takes place.