Optometrist : Training

All optometrists practising in the UK must be registered with the General Optical Council (GOC) , the profession’s regulatory body, and listed on the Opticians Register. They must renew their registration annually in order to practise.

Continuing education and training (CET) is a mandatory requirement for continued registration with the GOC. The GOC’s CET scheme ensures that optometrists maintain the up-to-date knowledge and skills needed to practise safely throughout their career. The CET  website enables optometrists to manage and maintain a record of their CET.

The College of Optometrists  has developed a voluntary continuing professional development (CPD) scheme to help optometrists maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills beyond the level required for re-registration. CPD Online is free to members and allows optometrists to manage their ongoing CPD.

Activities that count towards CET include attendance at lectures/workshops and distance learning by reading educational articles or listening to podcasts. CPD activities include postgraduate training, discussing case studies with colleagues, reading learned articles and reflecting upon them.

It is possible to undertake further study at postgraduate level. See the websites of the approved undergraduate degree providers for details of postgraduate courses leading to the degrees of MPhil and PhD.

The College of Optometrists currently offers a range of ‘Higher Qualifications’ on subjects such as:

• contact lenses;
• orthoptics;
• diabetes;
• glaucoma.

Optometrists may also train as prescribing optometrists. This allows them to use an additional range of drugs in their professional practice and/or write prescriptions for medicines for ocular conditions. The College of Optometrists awards diplomas in therapeutics to those optometrists who have undertaken this additional training and passed the College’s Common Final Examination. The optometrist can then register with the GOC as a specialist prescribing optometrist.