Welcome | College of Opticians of British Columbia

Continuing Competency Program

The continuing competency program (CCP) is one of several quality assurance initiatives we've designed to promote quality practice for the public's protection and to maintain their trust in BC opticians.

We've developed the new CCP to provide opticians with the tools to plan and focus on optician's professional growth and learning goals.

The new CCP will provide opticians with the data they'll need to focus and plan their professional progress, and will assure the public that their opticians are staying competent throughout their career.

Opticians starting their new cycle in 2018 will begin on this new program. Opticians will no longer be required to meet credit requirements. Instead, the new CCP will help opticians continue to be a competent professional by:

• Finding out which competencies opticians exceed in, meet expectations in, or require development in.

• Creating a development learning plan to focus an optician's professional development.

• Providing the opportunity for professional growth reflection.

The process is broken down into 4 steps:

1. Continuing Competency Assessment

At the start of each continuing competency cycle, opticians will complete an online assessment based on the National Competencies for Canadian Opticians. The online assessment generates a competency profile that highlights an optician's strong competencies and areas for development. This competency profile will help opticians identify what they need to work on and help direct opticians to the appropriate activities to plan their professional growth in those areas.

2. Develop Learning Goals with Plans

Opticians will work on at least 2 learning goals annually based on their competencies that need development. These goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely), and will provide focus and direction for opticians throughout their cycle. Opticians will plan out which activities to participate in to achieve their learning goals and develop their competency.

3. Achieving Learning Goals

Opticians will then follow through with their plan to achieve the goal they set out to achieve. Completing the activities as planned will determine whether the desired learning has been accomplished. Opticians will make their own choices and decisions regarding these activities, and what it might take to learn what they set out to, and how to put in into practice.

4. Reflection

After completing their action plan, opticians will then reflect on how these activities helped to develop their skills and improve their practice. This step will allow opticians to think deeply about what they learned, or perhaps what they need to learn further, and how they might get there.

Opticians will be able to manage their continuing competency online through their registrant profile. The assessment portion of the new program will be available for the first cycle of registrants in April 2018. The program will also allow registrants to manage their learning plan online, once it is made available (~June 2018), to track their progress and submit when completed.

Starting in 2018, certain opticians will change over to the new CCP. Start dates:

• April 1, 2018 - CE cycle 2

• January 1, 2019 - CE cycle 3

• January 1, 2020 - CE cycle 1

If opticians from other CE cycles wish to change to the new CCP to start the program sooner, they can contact the College to discuss. By 2020, all opticians will be on the new CCP.

For more information, including a full program guide and list of frequently asked questions, please access our Guides & Tools page. For more information on using study clubs within the new program, click here.

Optician Online CCP Login

Opticians whose CE cycle starts April 1, 2018, can login to their online profiles and start the new Continuing Competency Program by clicking on the "Opticians Login" button at the top right corner of the screen.