TEACHING MATERIALS HAVE evolved from text-based instruction to videos to online courses and live webinars. During Vision Expo, The Vision Council and RX offer accredited continuing education materials to participants with the VisionEd optometry and opticianry program. This is one of several outreach programs that a handful of individuals and companies offer for opticianry education. OpticianWorks.com provides free YouTube training videos complete with certification for opticians at the end of six to 12 months. The ABO and NCLE provide certificates to participants for completing their online education, live webinars, and CE articles when they receive enough credits.
VSP Optics
Twice a year, VSP and its education platform, UUniversity, offer a fully sponsored, 8-week, 16-hour ABO prep course, “Acing The ABO,” which is free to all.
myUUniversity.com
Contact Lens Society of America
Offers NCLE Exam prep which includes online modules with unlimited practice tests and is also available from CLSA University. They also offer a Home Study personal edition — a copy of the Contact Lens Manual Volume 1 book with a set of quizzes to take online.
clsa.info
ASB Opticianry Education Services
Andrew S. Bruce offers private instruction for both ABO and NCLE prep via Zoom.
(360) 241-3644 | asbopticianry.com
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PECAA
On the business side, it offers training in an Optical Management Certification program to teach skills necessary to manage a successful optical.
(800) 959-2020 | pecaa.com
Optician Now
Offers books, practice tests, and videos for self-learning in addition to ABO and NCLE Exam Study material.
opticiannow.com
American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Board
A certification program that approves education for opticians and contact lens fitters. This includes in-person lectures, live webinars, on-demand courses, and articles.
abo-ncle.org
Laramy-K
Provides YouTube videos, text, illustrations, and step-by-step examples to help train opticians. In addition, it has developed a free, downloadable staff training tool for owners and managers called the Optician Qualification Standard (OQS).
opticianworks.com
Optical Training Institute
The Optician Development Program (ODP) from Optical Training Institute is an on-the-job apprenticeship training program that provides a real world, practical approach to opticianry, alongside a digital program featuring hundreds of interactive videos and lessons accompanied by illustrations, 3D animations, quizzes and practice problems, as well as a practice hub with study guides, flashcards, practice tests and practice worksheets to reinforce the most challenging concepts. Custom reports and dashboards track student progress and provide accompanying on the job support and activities.
(949) 551-5455 | opticaltraining.com
Smart Ways to Utilize Opticianry Training Programs
John Seegers, M.ED. Laramy K OpticianWorks.com
I began OpticianWorks back in 2008 to fill a gap in opticianry education. In 2015, I joined forces with the independent optical lab Laramy-K and Keith Benjamin, who understood the need for video. We started producing videos and making them available on YouTube. Since then, we’ve created over 200, garnering more than 6+ million views with 57,000 followers. The free videos train both opticians and consumers. The full OpticianWorks program then adds text, illustrations, images, step-by-step examples, progress tracking, email support, and more videos. Upon completion, we provide a certificate. The cost is $129/ year for the optician course which is updated every year. We’ve also developed a free, downloadable staff training tool for owners and managers, the Optician Qualification Standard, to bring the online program into the real world, Carrie Wilson of Optigal Consulting has joined OpticianWorks, and we now have an NCLE/contact lens program too.
Karla Aviles
Continuing Education Coordinator, American Board of Opticianry & National Contact Lens Examiners
We are a certification program that approves courses for opticians. There are 24,962 opticians in the United States with basic certification and 10,439 contact lens fitters with basic certification. There are also 414 ABO advanced certified opticians and 188 NCLE advanced certified contact lens fitters. Since they all need to renew their certificates every three years, they complete courses for a certain number of credits. We approve in-person lectures, which are sometimes delivered as live webinars, online education, on-demand courses, and articles for opticians to read and answer to obtain credit.
