Specsavers is directly targeting optometrists and dispensers in the United Kingdom with promises of a better professional and personal life ‘Down Under’.
The campaign takes advantage of a recent decision from the Optometry Board of Australia to allow overseas trained optometrists to practice locally under supervision.
In an advertisement that appears in Optometry Today, Specsavers tells UK optoms that their own Specsavers business is “reserved”… “Down Under”.
It announces that Specsavers has opened over 300 stores in Australia and New Zealand in just over four years and become the “brand leader”.
The ad offers “an outstanding relocation package covering visas for you and your immediate family, shipping and initial accommodation on arrival – fully funded by Specsavers.” It offers a starting salary of approx. 50,000 pounds (AUD$78,000) plus store profits and an “unbelievable lifestyle dividend… the perfect recipe for both professional and personal satisfaction.”
The Optometry Board of Australia released a new standard mid-year which allows overseas optometrists who have not completed an approved program of study to apply for limited registration for postgraduate training or supervised practice and practice within a Board approved supervised practice plan. In its Guidelines for Supervision, the OBA says the “supervision” can be “direct, indirect, remote or take the form of mentoring, depending on the experience and abilities of the optometrists concerned and the requirements of the Board.”
At that time, Specsavers Professional Services Director, Peter Larsen told mivision Specsavers welcomed the decision. “We welcome this instigation by the Board to provide greater flexibility to the workforce because there are very well qualified optometrists in countries such as the UK… what the Board has recognised is that by lowering the hurdle, there will be greater ability to get overseas optoms into the country and that will help service areas of regional Australia currently suffering an acute shortage of optometric healthcare.”
