How to become an optometrist

Optometrists help people with their vision. They monitor eye health, prescribe glasses, and help fit contact lenses. We’ve written a guide that outlines what you need to become an optometrist and how to get into the field.

Key facts

  • Salary: Optometrists can earn between £37,000 - £61,000, depending on experience.
  • Typical hours: Optometrists can work anywhere between 35 to 40 hours a week. You might be expected to work evenings and weekends in some roles.
  • You need a university degree accredited by the General Optical Council to become a registered optometrist.
  • You'll need work experience in the industry, but don't need a degree to get started out.
  • Volunteering or having work experience in healthcare can help you get onto a course in Optometry.

What is an optometrist?

An optometrist is a healthcare professional who specialises in eye health. They care for the people’s eyes and help people improve their eyesight. Optometrists can also identify other general health issues like diabetes or high blood pressure through examining the eye.

Day-to-day work

Optometrists will have different day-to-day work depending on where they work. You can work for different institutions and fields, such as:

  • Hospitals
  • Clinics
  • High street optometrists
  • Teaching
  • Research

Where you work will change the type of work you’re doing daily, but in general you will be:

  • Conducting eye exams on patients
  • Offering advice regarding eye health, general health, and vision correction to patients
  • Prescribing glasses and/or contact lenses. You might also help with fitting glasses or contact lenses.
  • Referring to specialists and other healthcare professionals where necessary
  • Supervise, train and teach trainee optometrists, opticians or medical students both in placement or as a member of teaching staff.
  • If you’re working at an eye clinic you’ll be involved in more specialist work

Becoming an optometrist

1. Get into the optical industry

Many courses will require that you’re already working in, or have experience in, the optical industry.

The best way to get experience in the industry is to work for an optical practice, typically starting out as an Optical Assistant.

Optical Assistants require no formal qualifications and are an excellent way to start your career in optometry.

To become an optical assistant, you can apply for jobs at high-street opticians like Specsavers or Boots Opticians, or local independent opticians.

You will usually need some skills or experience in customer service and sales. As part of the role you’ll begin to learn basics of the optical industry, and over time you’ll build up the experience needed to progress further in your career.

2. Become a Dispensing Optician

The next step is to become a Dispensing Optician. A Dispensing Optician is a registered healthcare professional who help advise, fit and supply glasses and contact lenses for their patients.

You’ll need to complete a degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing in order to become a qualified and registered dispensing optician.

Here at the University of Central Lancashire, we have a BSc Ophthalmic Dispensing course.

Our course is available to those with a year of industry experience in optical work. Successfully completing our course will allow you to move onto the MOptom Optometry course, the final step in becoming a fully qualified and registered Optometrist.

3. Become an Optometrist

Once you have completed your degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing, you can then move onto becoming a registered Optometrist.

Our MOptom Optometry course provides the opportunity to earn your qualification and registration after you have obtained your degree and experience as a dispensing optician

Upon completion of an Optometry course you’ll be able to register with the General Optical Council as a certified optometrist.

If you wish to specialise further from this point, there are options to specialise your practice in areas such as:

  • Low vision
  • Glaucoma
  • Paediatrics
  • Medical retina

Frequently asked questions