As optometry students from Lancashire and Hertfordshire universities progress through their Clinical Learning in Practice (CLiP) placements, the College of Optometrists is preparing for a cohort of 500 more trainees to join them in clinics across the country this summer.
As the centre point of the General Optical Council’s (GOC) new training requirements, CLiP holds some marked differences when compared to the traditional pre-registration placement – the need for students to complete their placements on the university schedule of one calendar year being one major change.
Whilst CLiP gains momentum, though, the profession hasn’t said goodbye to the Scheme for Registration completely – in fact, 500 optometry students will also be starting as pre-regs in 2026, alongside their peers completing CLiP.
The aim, whilst the Scheme for Registration is still in existence, is for both sets of students to have the best experience possible, the College of Optometrists’ director of education, Lizzy Ostler, told OT.
She explained: “It feels like a bit of a juggernaut at the moment. We are ploughing forward. We have got everything on the go, but we are also working to enhance as we go and as we learn about things, to make things easier and smoother.”
Ostler emphasised: “We want to reduce the admin, so we can focus on the good experience.”
Here, OT shares more insights from Ostler, ahead of CLiP’s large-scale rollout this July.
1 Diverse employers and a wealth of choice for students
Several thousand applications for CLiP placements had been made on the College of Optometrists’ portal when it closed for 2027 entry in February, Ostler told OT, from students at all of CLiP’s university partners.
“We had significantly more placements available than there are students in the system, so they had a good choice of places to apply to,” Ostler said.
The diversity of employers signed up to provide CLiP placements – including many independent practices – was welcomed by the College of Optometrists.
“That enthusiasm and diversity shows that the sector has confidence in what we’re doing, and that is really nice for us,” Ostler told OT.
She explained: “People were concerned, when we started, that it would be very dominated by the large employers – but we are seeing quite a lot of interest from the smaller employers. We are getting some of the smaller chains and many of the independents on board, as well as hospitals. That is really positive.”
Ostler shared that, when compared to the Scheme for Registration, the fraction of independent practices offering CLiP starting in 2026 was slightly higher than previously.
“In that first round of applications last year, I was really pleased to see that people weren’t just going for large multiples,” she said.
“We were seeing lots of smaller practices and independents getting lots of applications – people weren’t just relying on brands that they knew.”
Ostler hopes that the level of outreach with employers that the College of Optometrists has committed to over the past five years, including regularly attending employer conferences, has had a positive effect.
“I feel like we have promoted the importance of educating the next generation effectively, and that has generated interest in joining us,” she told OT.
Inside the CLiP placement
In the second instalment of our video series, AOP Councillor and pre-registration optometrist, Deepali Poojara, reflects on her first assessment and the lessons learned so far
2 CLiP placements in hospitals will take place from 2027
Ostler acknowledged to OT that some hospital optometrists had voiced concerns over the ways that CLiP might incorporate hospital placements.
Separately, OT has heard concerns that the recruitment of hospital optometrists might be impacted if hospitals can no longer take an active part in the training of student optometrists.
However, Ostler confirmed that a number of hospitals are now signed up to offer CLiP placements from 2027 onwards.
Ironing out how hospital placements can work within CLiP has “been part of the five-year journey” that the College of Optometrists has been on since the GOC announced its plans for revamped optometry education in 2021, Ostler told OT.
“We have been meeting regularly with hospital optometrists in a variety of formats, and we hear their pain,” she said.
Optometry training placements under the hospital eye service have provided a challenge since Agenda for Change pay scales were introduced in 2004, Ostler revealed.
“It has been a challenge to fit things into the NHS’ expectations, and that becomes possibly more complex, again, with the change to the education training requirements,” she said.
But the College of Optometrists has worked through a lot of the issues involved in order to explain how CLiP could work for hospitals, Ostler revealed.
She told OT: “There were obviously some concerns. But I think, whenever you change a system, people get nervous about what they are going to lose, what they are going to have to do differently, and how much extra work it will be.
“We have had time, over the past five years, to try and work through all of those things and make sure it [CLiP] is not more burdensome, it’s not more complicated, it’s manageable for as many settings as possible, and that the administration is minimised so that the experience is maximised.”
Ostler explained that this work has led to various hospitals signing up to offer CLiP placements for 2027 entry.
“We have got engagement from most of the hospitals who already offer placements on the scheme, and they are really keen to move forward,” Ostler said.
“They are doing it both in collaboration with primary care settings, but also independently.”
CLiP students in hospitals will be required to gather the same level of evidence as those in community practice Ostler said, noting that having some level of relationship with a practice would be beneficial.
We have got engagement from most of the hospitals who already offer placements on the scheme, and they are really keen to move forward
“We generally find that they need to have some arrangement with a local practice, because there are some tasks that simply don’t happen often enough in an hospital to gather the evidence,” Ostler said.
She noted, however, that CLiP students will not be as constrained by tracking numbers of refractions and dispenses as they were under the Scheme for Registration.
“It is very much about gathering the minimum amount of evidence required in order to be able to have a conversation at assessment about competence, rather than racking up hundreds of something,” she said.
However, Ostler noticed: “They [hospital trainees] still need to be able to do the same things to be able to qualify.”
She emphasised: “It is a different experience. They may well see a greater variety of pathology. You get a different a different experience in the High Street, in the sense that you get used to the impact of business and the expectations in that setting.”
Ostler also revealed that the College of Optometrists is “having ongoing conversations with a variety of settings.”
“I’m hoping to expand it out beyond the hospital eye service,” she said.
3 Highest competition for CLiP placements in the West Midlands
Because the 15 providers of optometry education are not distributed evenly across the UK, there has been more competition for placements in certain areas, Ostler told OT.
She identified the West Midlands as a particularly competitive environment for those applying for CLiP placements.
“Practices will tend to see large numbers of applications, just as they did for the Scheme for Registration,” Ostler said.
This is compounded because students often want to remain close to their universities during their placements, she added.
However, this might have unexpected benefits for students who are willing to travel further afield, Ostler believes.
“In coastal and rural areas, practices are working hard, and what is nice is that they get an opportunity to advertise additional experience, or higher pay, or additional conditions that they can offer to the student,” Ostler said.
“The student could choose to go somewhere that is a little bit more remote, but maybe it will come with a better salary, or five days’ pay for four days work – that kind of thing.”
4 The CLiP process is evolving based on feedback
OT was interested in hearing whether any learnings have been taken from the first months of CLiP, after University of Lancashire students began their placements in late 2025 and University of Hertfordshire students in January 2026.
Ostler called listening to student feedback and adapting based on it an “absolute fundamental” of working in education.
Students at both universities have been extremely keen to provide feedback in the early months of CLiP, Ostler said.
In terms of the new application system, she emphasised that everyone – the College of Optometrists, CLiP students, and their supervisors – are all learning together, and various adjustments to the process have been shared and actioned.
The College of Optometrists has been “really lucky” that the first two cohorts have been “very outgoing and communicative,” Ostler said.
She noted: “What we found is that clarity about what is expected is the most important thing, particularly when you've got new system.”
The College of Optometrists is working to provide examples of what students should include in their logbooks, to avoid them including all patient notes as they might be tempted to, Ostler said.
Instead, the College of Optometrists is working to emphasise that all that is required is enough evidence to demonstrate that students are ready for their assessments.
Providing more guidance and good examples in order to bring what is required to life is the current aim, Ostler explained.
“Students have allowed us to share their really good work, so that other people can see what good looks like,” she said.
She added that more resources are being created all the time, including online recordings, interactive courses, live webinars, and Q&A sessions.
Resources for supervisors, including ongoing programmes, continuing professional development sessions and drop-ins, are also being prioritised, Ostler said.
Students have allowed us to share their really good work, so that other people can see what good looks like
5 All CLiP students will move to a four-day working week
One change that CLiP students will experience in comparison to those completing the Scheme for Registration is the standardisation of a four-day working week for students, with the fifth day reserved for learning.
This is something that has been negotiated and agreed with all employers signed up to the programme, Ostler said.
The fifth day will allow guaranteed time for learning, rather than having CLiP students “running from one test to another and working flat out,” she noted.
“Some employers were already doing this with their Scheme for Registration trainees, and they found that they tended to progress better, because they had the time to absorb, think and reflect,” Ostler explained.
The four-day week has also been implemented in order to give universities the time to provide additional support sessions where required.
“We think that this model is going to enable them to progress, reflect on the patient-facing experience, prepare for assessment effectively, and benefit from support where they need it,” Ostler added.
6 Fitting the experience into one academic year
Ostler believes that the biggest change presented by the new GOC education regulations is that CLiP now has to fit into one calendar year, so that students can graduate at the appropriate time.
This presents a big change because under the Scheme for Registration, the student could choose, along with their supervisor, when they were ready to sit their assessments, Ostler said.
“Now that assessments are scheduled, we have to implement rules and regulations – as well as the assessments and logbooks – to make sure everybody can get through in a timely way, and that they are then certified and ready to practise independently,” she told OT.
However, she hopes that the College of Optometrists taking more of an active role, as the facilitators of CLiP placements, will help students in this regard.
“The College is the meat in the sandwich of the whole experience,” Ostler told OT.
She noted that, under the Scheme for Registration, the College of Optometrists had an assessor role, but under CLiP, “we have worked on making it a more supportive experience.”
A partnership of employers and universities, working together with the College of Optometrists, will “give a proper collaborative experience,” Ostler believes.
The online portal that marks a student’s progress is viewable by anyone involved in their training, she explained.
Ostler added: “It’s really important that people engage with that. If they’re preparing for assessments, they need to make sure that they're gathering the right things and documenting them.
“We have to have that evidence in order to satisfy the GOC that they are ready for practice.”
Now that assessments are scheduled, we have to implement rules and regulations – as well as the assessments and logbooks – to make sure everybody can get through in a timely way
7 Training CLiP students is a job for the whole practice team
Ostler believes that, in the “new world” of optometry education, the entire practice team has a role in getting a student optometrist over the line to qualification.
With over 1000 CLiP placements available on the portal for 2027 start, it will be likely that future CLiP students have consciously chosen to train with particular employers, Ostler emphasised.
“They have had that opportunity to select from all of the people in system,” she said, adding: “They really are looking to to be inspired, and to be led.”
Ostler noted that the College of Optometrists wants the entire practice team to be involved in CLiP training.
“Whatever they can do to light the way of the student as they go through, they will increase their confidence, and they will increase their capability,” she said.
This “is going to benefit the practice and the whole profession,” Ostler believes.
She added: “In the end, you get better outcomes for patients. I’m really hoping we can see big benefits from this collaboration for everybody, so it becomes easier for students, easier for employers, and we get some really great new registrants at the end.”
For more information on CLiP, practitioners are urged to visit the College of Optometrists’ website or get in touch via the CLiP email address.
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