Worth the wait

Natasha Cornish

Most things have been delayed and rescheduled by the pandemic, including the qualification of three hard-working Edmonds & Slatter staff members.

Lucy Struthers, Natasha Cornish and Laura Green finally received their optical assistant (OA) qualification certificates last week after starting what should have been a much shorter and simpler optical course three years ago.

The Level 4 Senior Optical Assistant qualification was extended by a year, only intended to be a two-year course, due to Covid-19.

Laura Green

It involved the three team members travelling to London’s University of Westminster and the ABDO National Resource Centre in Birmingham, combined with home study while continuing their roles at different Edmonds & Slatter practices during the day.

Natasha commented: “It has helped us to understand much more of the background information involved in our day-to-day work and is also a future step onto the dispensing opticians course should we want to pursue it.”

The course included elements covering, but not limited to, clinical support and management, optics, the eye and ocular supplements and optical skills in practice.

Find out more about the OA courses offered via ABDO College here.

Lucy Struthers