After receiving feedback there needed to be development opportunities beyond its initial two-year Graduate Program, Specsavers responded in 2023 by rolling out a new scheme that’s providing more direction for its early career optometrists.
After speaking to Dr Edmund Tong for a few moments, the conviction in his voice immediately indicates this is a driven individual. Even before he began working as a fully-fledged graduate optometrist, he had his sights on one thing – store partnership – and has achieved this in his fourth year out of university at Specsavers Devonport, Tasmania.
Today, he is still considered an early career optometrist, but the career development opportunities within Specsavers have allowed him to accelerate towards his goal, now running a team of around 20 people alongside optical dispensing partner Ms Anafa Fok Chak.
“I knew I wanted to pursue store partnership since I started working for Specsavers as an optical assistant in 2017. Even during my graduate optometry interview in 2021, one of my questions to my bosses then was how soon can I work towards store partnership?” he says.
In the first two years, Tong benefitted from Specsavers’ Graduate Program that provides stability in such a delicate moment in an optometrist’s professional life. At the other end of the spectrum, he’s also gained important knowledge from the Pathway Program equipping aspiring business owners with the acumen they need for joint venture partnership within the network.
But in recent years Specsavers spotted an important opportunity to ensure optometrists still only part-way through their career – but after relinquishing the security of the Graduate Program – could continue to develop their skills and experience.
That’s why in 2023 the company launched the Early Career Optometrists (ECO) Program. As part of the initiative, third- and fourth-year Specsavers optometrists receive a monthly newsletter where they can choose from various development opportunities. These include clinical opportunities, voluntary work, and upskilling courses, as well as non-clinical opportunities such as financial advice and information.
Networking events and mentoring are also important components of the initiative.
For Tong, the ECO Program was a key steppingstone on the way to store partnership. He rates one-on-one meetings with Ms Cindy Nguyen, head of professional development at Specsavers ANZ, as one of the most crucial elements.
“With the ECO Program, there are several events and opportunities to serve your clinical skills or further your financial acumen skills,” he says. “Mine was a little different purely because I wanted to develop my leadership skills for store partnership. Cindy gave me the encouragement and a tailored recommendation advising if that’s what I wanted, then I needed to lead an initiative in store, or if I wanted to be seen more highly by my peers then I needed to run a CPD event.”
Tong got to work. He set up an in store project to better link recommendations to a patient’s lifestyle, further increasing his leadership and commercial skills. Within a matter of months, he went from being an optometrist at Specsavers Waurn Ponds, Torquay and Belmont (operated by the same partners) to store partner at Devonport, commencing in March 2024.
“I can’t praise the value of those one-on-one meetings enough because it maps a path forward. I already knew where I wanted to go, I just needed someone to fill in the gaps for me,” he says.
“For early career optometrists to have the ECO Program, it’s fantastic because now optometrists don’t have to head into the world of optometry without any formalised support. They have somewhere to turn to when they need it. Retention is so important and having this structured program means that optometrists can have an even greater reason and cause to stay with Specsavers because they know someone cares about their development.”
Eliminating blind spots
In the years after joining Specsavers in 2021, like any graduate, Ms Alvia Faiza’s priority was to build her clinical abilities. This was going well, but there was one patient group that always made her nervous – children.
“Children’s testing can be more objective. You can’t always rely on answers from the parent and child,” says Faiza, who practises at both Specsavers Maroubra and Eastgardens, NSW.
“It’s all about ruling out serious causes, but there’s also different norms to consider. There’s much closer follow up and it’s their development years, so it’s more consequential for their vision later in life. Managing amblyopia is also important because up until the age of seven or eight, it’s very difficult to treat and regain vision.”
As part of the ECO Program, early career Specsavers optometrists can access the Australian College of Optometry’s Advanced Certificate in Children’s Vision. It’s a six-month program with CPD hours attached and covers abnormal binocular vision, paediatric amblyopia, strabismus, nystagmus, vision therapy, learning related vision problems, myopia control and paediatric ocular disease.
Realising this was an area she wanted to develop, Faiza signed up and now has more confidence when presented with a paediatric case, seeing children, as well as teenagers with myopia management.
“Having the support of the ECO Program introduces you to opportunities you might not have sought out otherwise,” she says.
Faiza realised in her high school years that optometry was the career for her while she sat in a Specsavers waiting room. It’s perhaps unsurprising this culminated in her employment there, but the network’s structured approach to career development was a major drawcard, alongside its clinical approach to optometry.
After completing two years under the highly structured Graduate Program, Faiza says the ECO Program is about exploring potential special interests and upskilling in those areas.
In another opportunity born out of the program, she conducted voluntary work at a Diabetes Australia conference where people with the condition could speak to her and other Specsavers optometrists on the booth about the implications for their eye health. This experience has fuelled a desire to influence beyond the consulting room, and emphasised the importance of programs such as KeepSight.
“Now that I’m in my fourth year, I’ve seen that community education about maintaining good eye health is such a big part of what we do,” she says.
“If I can upskill through the ECO Program this year and go out to the wider communities through outreach work, I’d get a lot of fulfilment out of that. It makes the biggest difference because patients understand the importance of regular eye checks; you don’t lose them to follow up.”
A seat on the ECO Advisory Committee
Altru Festival is an event for Australia’s homeless youth and disadvantaged. At the 2023 event in Brisbane’s West End, volunteers manned booths offering haircuts, laundry services, nutritional advice and other essentials.
Specsavers was also there, with its optometrists providing basic eye screening, advice and even referrals. One of those optometrists was Ms Brie Tsang who spied the opportunity via the ECO Program.
“We handed out glasses to several presbyopes. We also came across cases of suspected astigmatism, and even a patient who had a suspicious looking lesion (basal cell carcinoma) on their eyelid, so we informed them it would be best to see an optometrist in store for a thorough test,” she says.
“We also handed out vouchers for free pairs of glasses, educated patients about our bulkbilled eye tests, and included detailed written referrals. It was a rewarding experience and I think a lot of people appreciated seeing us there.”
When Specsavers first announced the ECO Program in 2023, Tsang knew she wanted to be part of the ECO Advisory Committee to help shape the program and provide opportunities to co-present at Specsavers events.
But 2023 was significant for other reasons too. After starting her career at Specsavers Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast – a store she went to with another optometrist from her Queensland University of Technology cohort as part of the company’s ‘go with a friend’ initiative – she moved back to Brisbane where she purchased her first home.
The company managed to secure her a role at its Indooroopilly location. Such a big change can be exciting and unsettling, but she’s found stability through mentorship within the ECO Program.
“The opportunity for one-on-one meetings with the professional development team to let them know how I was going has been incredibly helpful, especially after relocating. And the support office was very accommodating in finding a store that’s now just 15 minutes from my home,” she says.
“At this point in time, I’m not so much looking at partnership, it’s more about settling in to be the best clinical optometrist I can, furthering my clinical development opportunities, continuing to network and do the best that I can on the ECO Committee.”
Now in her second year of the ECO Program, Tsang is keen to explore other opportunities, potentially through paediatric and glaucoma courses with the ACO. A key benefit of the ECO program is a $3,000 allowance and elected day off to pursue for continued professional development (CPD).
“It’s exciting because we’re still developing the ECO Program, so there may be even more opportunities in future,” she says.
“The great thing about working at Specsavers is there are many career pathways – everyone has different plans and goals and that’s OK. At the end of the day, the business is here to support us regardless of what direction we choose. You’re never alone and there’s such a great team culture and dynamic, and incredible support systems we can always refer back to.”
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