Is "education" really the answer employers are looking for?

[MakeOptics]

We’ll simply have to agree to disagree on the value of higher education. I believe strongly that education is the foundation of a productive economy. Certainly the lack of or denial of education has been and will always be the tool used to deny the basic rights of any group of people. We have only to look at our own past. I remember “separate but equal”. I’ll hazard a guess that you are not old enough to appreciate the hard won right to a decent education.
As regards the profession of Opticianry, the lack of post-secondary education has worked to keep Opticians at the bottom of the ophthalmic food chain. Certainly, there are exceptions to this fate, but they are just that, exceptions rather than the rule. Opticians will continue to occupy the bottom floor in the optical community as long as they allow other professionals to define who they are and the limits of their scope of practice. After a long and proud history, Opticians have ceded their professional position to others who have had the foresight and commitment to further their own educational and legislative agendas. I challenge any one to identify a profession whose majority so proudly boasts of their lack of education and their disdain for professional regulation.
The writer of the original Huffington Post article, the one that started this lengthy and often ridiculous thread, is himself a college graduate and has a job that we could assume is fairly well-paying. His advice then is disingenuous. College degrees may not guarantee employment, but they will open doors to opportunities that the lack of said degrees cannot.
True professionals appreciate and will reward education, perhaps not with the overblown salaries of the recent past, but certainly at a consistently higher level than a simple high school diploma will demand.
Ask yourself, is the voice that tells you that your college degree has no value, giving you good advice or protecting his or her own position at your expense?

Peace out!

House of cards. Your building should be built on a solid foundation. I agree with your stance on education but if your looking at blaming other professionals, your blind in an industry that provides sight. It was opticians that prevented licensing and education in many of the states in years past. Currently if you look at this thread as an example it is opticians again who are arguing about the merits.

To be perfectly honest in the past when opticians had the opportunity to license many if not all the states it was the business owners that did not want wages to go higher. By the time they saw the error in their ways it was too late, corporate opticals and optometry had found a way to carve out a bigger piece of the pie for themselves and so gone were the golden days of dispensing as the old timers tell it.

Since the industry is mature and has had no real incidence of mass damages or injuries making changes to the industry now is going to be an impossible task. One I don't believe that any of the current organizations are capable or even willing to take on.

If these threads about education and licensure are looked at from a statistical standpoint they are the most viewed, posted, and argued over threads. So the saying holds true your either going to be be famous, infamous, or forgotten. This topic is infamous because every optical professional has an opinion on the topic. If you look at the trade magazines every few years they capitalize on the subject; meetings, summits, white papers, and new organizations.

Lets stop arguing over the menial crap that no one is going to change and focus on the exploitation of a mature industry. If you are an optician at this point in your career, if you are younger then 30 get out now. If you are older than 30 focus on the business aspect of the industry and run a lean mean operation. Learning to be an optician has been decided by the public and they prefer a short stint in LC academy over a real education. Now this last paragraph is gonna seem like it contradicts the first paragraph where I say I agree with education. Here's the rub, get a degree in accounting, get an MBA, get anything that would compliment your opticianry skills, it's called hedging your bet. If this profession ever wises up and changes it's course they'll grandfather you in, if they don't at least you can take your degree to another field when the ship goes down in flames.

Forget about being a better optician, be a better you.

For those that want to argue put your money where your mouth is, I foresee in the next 10 years one to two less licensed states, with a few others on the brink. Ulliean seems to be the only one with eye's wide open to that fact and honestly I don't think the higher education argument he is defending is wrong especially in this industry. Think about it every time someone mentions education they point to another profession, not opticianry.

[chip anderson]

Actually the state licenseing was origionally and still blocked by O.D.'s The chains later joined the O.D's in this.
The opticians were never strong enough to get the votes in the legislature and never willing to shell out enough
from thier own pockets to buy the legislative voted (even back in the '60's when legislators were cheap).

Chip

[AustinEyewear]

We’ll simply have to a I believe strongly that education is the foundation of a productive economy.

The right education. We have plenty of out of work underwater basket weavers already.

As regards the profession of Opticianry, the lack of post-secondary education has worked to keep Opticians at the bottom of the ophthalmic food chain.

Not sure if this is exactly what you meant, but where else would they be located? Above optometrists?

[golfnut]

My son had to have more FORMAL education to be a barber than I did to be a Licensed Optician! That's a shame...

[AustinEyewear]

My son had to have more FORMAL education to be a barber than I did to be a Licensed Optician! That's a shame...

Really? Please do elaborate...

[Johns]

Really? Please do elaborate...

In most states...barbers are licensed.

[optical24/7]

In most states...barbers are licensed.

Even Texas, requires schooling. (We license dog trimmers too, but not opticians..)

[golfnut]

He graduated from OSU Barber College. There is no Optician school here in Ohio though? I guess the "Hair Dr's" don't try and block their professional advancement!!:)

[AustinEyewear]

He graduated from OSU Barber College. There is no Optician school here in Ohio though? I guess the "Hair Dr's" don't try and block their professional advancement!!:)

The hair biz looks to be a bit of a racket and a tax on barbers to me. Regardless, they are not working under the supervision of someone called a doctor, so there is a pretty big distinction here.

As long as you can purchase glasses over the internet, why would there ever be a need for a licensed optician? Got an Rx? Then you can by-pass the optician all together.....

[Chris Ryser]

As long as you can purchase glasses over the internet, why would there ever be a need for a licensed optician? Got an Rx? Then you can by-pass the optician all together.....

.............maybe you should also be aware that many or most of these on-line optical are technically run by probably educated opticians. "Coastal" advertised a couple of years ago that their service is run by an ex large optical corporation executive. Corporation owned "Frames Direct" is still under the direction of 2 optometrists.

[Java99]

The hair biz looks to be a bit of a racket and a tax on barbers to me. Regardless, they are not working under the supervision of someone called a doctor, so there is a pretty big distinction here.

As long as you can purchase glasses over the internet, why would there ever be a need for a licensed optician? Got an Rx? Then you can by-pass the optician all together.....

Not all opticians work for, with or under doctors :)

[EyeManFla]

I didn't for the first 20 years. Unfortunately, some states make it very difficult for the independent optician. And now with MDs owning dispensories, it makes it just that more difficult.

Not all opticians work for, with or under doctors :)

[optilady1]

I wonder how many teachers, doctors, lawyers, hair dressers, nail technicians, computer programmers, pharmacists, therapists, dieticians, nurses, CPA's, engineers, mortitians, vetrinarians, cops, fire fighters, etc... would laugh their butts off knowing that another profession was debating whether education was necessary or not.

Why are we even debating this? McDonald's has their own university.

[chip anderson]

Of course remember that the requirements for "teachers" made it impossible for Bill Gates to teach a course on computers. Guess he jus' doan know nuff bout 'em and needs more preparation.

Chip

[AustinEyewear]

I wonder how many teachers, doctors, lawyers, hair dressers, nail technicians, computer programmers, pharmacists, therapists, dieticians, nurses, CPA's, engineers, mortitians, vetrinarians, cops, fire fighters, etc... would laugh their butts off knowing that another profession was debating whether education was necessary or not.

Why are we even debating this? McDonald's has their own university.

We gotta debate something. How about lets debate your choice of listed order of professions optilady If we think about this hard enough, I think we can come up subliminal reasoning to your order

[Uilleann]

...Why are we even debating this? McDonald's has their own university.

They're more highly educated than most of us knew, and yet the pummeling that the "McTician" receives here is second to none.

And for an example, there are a large (and growing) number of pharmacists and soon-to-be-pharm-grads who can't find any work. Their education isn't helping them land the careers they were hoping for. The schools are sitting pretty of course, and keep raising their tuition every year.

[Johns]

And for an example, there are a large (and growing) number of pharmacists and soon-to-be-pharm-grads who can't find any work. Their education isn't helping them land the careers they were hoping for.

That's a simple case of supply and demand.

[AustinEyewear]

They're more highly educated than most of us knew, and yet the pummeling that the "McTician" receives here is second to none.

And for an example, there are a large (and growing) number of pharmacists and soon-to-be-pharm-grads who can't find any work. Their education isn't helping them land the careers they were hoping for. The schools are sitting pretty of course, and keep raising their tuition every year.

same thing happening in optometry field. that is why opticians should quit fighting the uphill battle and just go to optometry school.

[Uilleann]

same thing happening in optometry field. that is why opticians should quit fighting the uphill battle and just go to optometry school.

Certainly sounds reasonable...and yet that field is becoming hyper-saturated with new grads as well, and ophthalmology isn't far behind that in speaking with many of our local docs here.

[chip anderson]

Yes but the ophthalmologist have solved the problem. Now we have super sub-specialist. You got Oculo-Plastics, you got pediatric ophthalmologist, you got retinal specialist, you got refractive surgeons, and probably a half dozed things I haven't named that either are on the horizion or coming soon.
You can get a single patient in the office with a dozen Ophthalmologist sub-specialist and share him for each of the subspeciallties. If that doesn't work you can always sell him some super zoomo glasses. Not to mention that a "general eye exam" doesn't even seem to cover what an eye exam has traditionally been.
It ain't like the old days when one doctor, one nurse/assistant and a receptionist constituted an eye specialist office.

Chip

[Uilleann]

That's a simple case of supply and demand.

And so is the case of formally "educated" opticians. The public doesn't demand it, so where is the money going to come from to pay for all that expensive education to do what the public feels we already charge to much to do right now?

[Johns]

And so is the case of formally "educated" opticians. The public doesn't demand it, so where is the money going to come from to pay for all that expensive education to do what the public feels we already charge to much to do right now?

When the market is flooded people purporting to be opticians, it does nothing but drive the wages down. The money is already there, it's just being given too many uneducated people.

[AustinEyewear]

When the market is flooded people purporting to be opticians, it does nothing but dive the wages down. The money is already there, it's just being given too many uneducated people.

This is where I think most people that strongly advocate big, long, expensive education for opticians. The money is not there. O.D.s are making less than ever and it is getting worse. Online sales are not going to help. Make sure the education is not too expensive that the optician can't payback the loans - that should be a big priority, I don't see salaries going sky high for the average optician. Too many struggling optical s. It would be very educational to hear numbers from optician owners concerning what they are paying opticians that work for them.

[Johns]

This is where I think most people that strongly advocate big, long, expensive education for opticians. The money is not there. O.D.s are making less than ever and it is getting worse. Online sales are not going to help. Make sure the education is not too expensive that the optician can't payback the loans - that should be a big priority, I don't see salaries going sky high for the average optician. Too many struggling optical s. It would be very educational to hear numbers from optician owners concerning what they are paying opticians that work for them.

I guess it all depends on what your definition of "big, long, and expensive" is. When I told some optical friends I was going to go to school to become an optician, many laughed and told me to apprentice. It was an option. Instead, I took 2 years and spent a whopping $1800 for a big fancy ivy league optical degree. (Maybe not "Ivy League" but Dr. Norm Ross was my instructor, and he wasn't teaching at Yale, so I went to where he was.)

It's a stinking two year degree! Not even worth mentioning, (and trust me, I don't mention it very often). I've learned much more since I'm out of school, but the formal education helped me understand what I was learning, and the theory behind it. And yes, I was offered more money, right out of school, than those of my peers that had apprenticed.

This is not the place discuss specifics of wages, but I have quite a few employees, and I can honestly say that those with formal educations are paid more than those without. They are not paid more because of the degree, but because they just happen to be the opticians that have quickly worked their way into managerial and other positions that add value to my practice.

[tmorse]

Make sure the education is not too expensive that the optician can't payback the loans

Our Canadian 6-month Optician/Contact Lens Fitter program won't put anyone in the poor house, and its income tax-deducible too. Should get about 25-30% tuition back the following year as deduction.