With thoughts firmly focused on the GOC call for evidence for its Strategic Review of Education and the Community Eyecare Services Review in Scotland it is hard not to reflect on educational provision for those engaged in all things ‘optics’.
When I qualified as a dispensing optician some 30+ years ago, it was an easy progression for me from 6th year at school straight to college to study full time for my diploma in ophthalmic dispensing followed by my pre-registration year and subsequent admission to the register. Today the choice is a lot more varied – yes, one can opt to study full time, but other modalities of study are also available: day release, blended learning and hopefully soon, in line with current government thinking, higher qualification apprenticeships.
As a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, I cannot help thinking that education has come ‘full circle’. If we think of our predecessors – the opticians of yesteryear – who were ‘apprenticed’ to a master craftsman and under his watchful eye, trained and gained the knowledge to learn their craft, and at the end of their training produced their ‘masterpiece’ to be appraised and receive the final assertion that they were fit to become craftsmen in their own right.
Modern apprenticeships may take a slightly different route, training, learning and assessment will undoubtedly be done in a different way, but I am surely not alone in thinking this idea is not a new one? Learning ‘on-the-job’ and being able to put into practice valuable skills learned right away reinforces learning and it is hoped will produce opticians who will rise to the challenges faced in modern day practice and the challenges we have yet to face in the future.