GENERAL

Although no longer concerned with the training and examination of either optometrists or dispensing opticians, the SMC nevertheless remains widely involved in contemporary optics, and does all that it can to promote help to the visually impaired. Liverymen, and in many instances members of the Court, contribute to the work of the:

The Company’s membership also includes Fellows of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and lecturers from the various university departments of vision sciences and applied optics. It is therefore well placed to act as a friendly apolitical forum where all those working to help the visually impaired to see better can meet to discuss matters of common interest in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The substantial “lay” element within the membership, having no professional involvement in optics whatsoever, encourages even wider discussion, and brings other much needed skills to the SMC’s work today.

TRAINING TODAY’S SPECTACLE MAKERS …….

To provide a more tangible contribution to contemporary optics, however, the SMC has returned to its original preoccupation by focusing on the training and professional development of those who actually make spectacles. The Company has been involved with the training of optical technicians for some time, having established a day release course at what is now City and Islington College in 1962. The course is run to a syllabus devised by the Company, which initially merely awarded certificates of attendance, competence and merit. However, an examination slowly evolved, and this was given fresh impetus as the Company sought greater liaison with the optical industry and the prescription houses. The day release course soon became oversubscribed, so to cater for the demand a correspondence course was added in 1990, and steps were taken to open the training up to overseas technicians. From 1982 onwards, those who successfully complete what is now a two-year course have been awarded the qualification SMC(Tech), a qualification which was given statutory recognition under Schedule 2(a) of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

In 2001, the recently established Qualifications and Curriculum Authority accredited the Company as an Awarding Body. Its certificate for optical technicians then became accredited to the National Qualifications Framework created under sections 96 and 97 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000.

The Company has also been well to the fore in the creation and promotion of optical manufacturing national vocational qualifications (NVQ) and optical manufacturing modern apprenticeships.

The Company’s demonstrable success in running technician training had long since prompted the Ophthalmic Manufacturers’ Association and the Ophthalmic Prescription Houses Organization (both of which are affiliated to the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians) to invite it to take over their modular courses programme, which is designed to provide instruction and practical experience that technicians cannot obtain in the workplace. Attendance is recorded on career progress cards provided by the Company, which can be inserted into the portfolios of those looking to achieve an NVQ.

….AND OPTICAL PRACTICE SUPPORT STAFF

Apart from organizing the training and examination of optical technicians, the Awards Committee is also charged with advising the Court on other ways in which the Company might further encourage and develop training and education within the industry and the profession. Consequently, the SMC is now involved in the training of optical practice support staff. City and Islington College had been running evening classes for them for some time, but in 1998/99 the Company stepped in to act as the Awarding Body, and introduce a year-long Level 2 correspondence course administered from the Company’s office in Apothecaries’ Hall. In 2002, it took on the role of setting the examination for those who had successfully completed the correspondence course and, in early 2003, it succeeded in getting this qualification accredited to the National Qualifications Framework as well. A Level 3 qualification was accredited in 2005.

SUPPORT FOR OPTICAL RESEARCH

The SMC’s support for optical research is overseen by a small group of prominent academics who, besides being members of the Company, hold (or held) chairs in vision sciences at various universities and colleges.

Since receiving its Charter in 1629, the Company has been to the fore in encouraging research into ways and means of enhancing the quality of life for the visually impaired, and of allowing the fully fit to see better. In spite of wars, revolutions, plagues and other disturbances, its members have played a prominent role in most of the innovations and improvements in the field of vision sciences that we now take for granted. Many of them acquired international reputations and high scientific honours.

Amongst those may be mentioned Richard Reeves, the first official scientific instrument maker to the newly founded Royal Society, who adapted Kepler’s Triple Convex lens system for use in the compound microscope. He also took part in the design and construction of the improved “double” microscope which was described and illustrated by Robert Hooke, the Royal Society’s Curator of Experiments, in his famous Micrographia in 1665. John Marshal was another: he invented the modern method of working a number of lenses simultaneously by the same tool, a procedure which the distinguished German optical historian Von Rohr described as “giving the London optician a great advantage over his foreign brethren”. James Ayscough (Master 1752) invented folding side-pieces for spectacles and introduced important innovations in microscope construction. John Dollond and his son Peter also did important and original work in this field, and there is evidence that the latter was making bifocal spectacles before Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have invented them.

The list could be much extended but, despite such an impressive record of involvement in research, it is only recently that the Company has sought to bestow its own marks of recognition. Twenty years ago, it presented the first of seven gold medals awarded to date in recognition of a lifetime of “outstanding contributions to the understanding or improvement of vision”. This medal, which is awarded without distinction of age, is named after Lord Crook, a former politician who was chairman of the inter-departmental Committee on the Statutory Registration of Opticians which led to the establishment of the General Optical Council. He also served as Master of the SMC from 1963 to 1965.

The Silver Medal, introduced some twelve years later as a commemoration of the contribution to ophthalmic optics of the Fincham brothers, honours exceptional work by those aged 40 and under. In 2001, the Company added a bronze medal, plus a monetary award, to encourage those within three years of obtaining their first degree, diploma or other acceptable qualification to make their first published contribution to the advancement of basic, clinical or technical ophthalmic science.

During the 1990s, the Company spurred the optical industry on to encouraging design students to focus on eyewear by holding its own Spectacle Frames Design Competition for seven years. It has since gone on to launch a competition to promote innovations that will enhance the provision of ophthalmic services to the public.

The Company sponsors a series of lectures which are delivered, both within and without London, to audiences drawn from all optical professions and trades. It also takes its turn to arrange the annual “Four Liveries Lecture” which is addressed to a combined audience of Spectacle Makers, Clockmakers, Scientific Instrument Makers and Lightmongers.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF LEARNING

Apart from awarding prizes to the most successful students in its own examinations, the Company makes presentations at the annual diploma ceremonies of the College of Optometrists and the Association of British Dispensing Opticians.