U guys would have known that the Spore Govt is legislating the Optometrists and Opticians practice. Starting from 1 Jan 2008, all optic shops need to hang up some form of qualification in their shop.. either registered optician/ optometrists/ licensed contact lens practitioners.This can be both a good news and a bad news to Singaporeans..
Good news: We can be rest assured that whoever that is serving us in the optic shop is well qualified to do his /her job in dispensing specs or refractory testing or dispensing contact lens.
Bad news: A significant number of optic shop owners will be force to end their business if they cant obtain the MOH-demanded qualification. Well, many owners i came across are in their forties, chinese educated and have many yrs of experience as an optician. Thus they feared most for the competency test. Worrying that their pte-ltd English will hinder their performances. My aunty is one of them.
I went for a briefing regarding the legislation(organised by SOP and SP-optometry center)with my aunt and many of those in this optical trade. Reached SP at 8am and had a hard time looking around for the MLT(only knew that it's near the Mac). Well, we finally settled in at 9am. It was a new experience for my aunt to sit and listen to "lectures". She will need to go back there again in July/August for her preparatory courses. Then the personals from MOH and SP gave their speech. All i can say that these 2 fellow have very good secretaries who prepared wonderful slides for them to read off at ease during their presentations. Then we were given a 30 min refreshment outside the MLT before we returned to the MLT for the Q & A. The 2 guys seriously beat around the bush for all the questions raised by the floor.
My aunt hopes that i can study optometry after my undergraduate course(due to end in 1.5 yrs). So i decided to ask the beat-around-the-bush guy from SP about the possibility of me getting into the optometry diploma course.
This was our conversation:
me: Hey, i'm an undergrad doing BioE in NTU and i'm interested to persue a career in
optometry after my gradation. Is it possible for me to enrol into SP optometry course?
beat-around-the-bush guy: HOw many points did u get for your O level? L1R4.
me: Hmmm.. 8.
beat-around-the-bush guy: can can.. of course we welcome u..
me: ok. then since i have already took up some bio-related modules in NTU. can i be exempted for certain modules in SP? thus being able to shorten my study course?
beat-around-the-bush guy: HUH??!!! Undergrad are already the cream of the crop. the govt will not subside ur study in SP.
me: (totally puzzled...)
beat-around-the-bush guy: nono.. u cant come to SP.. U can only go oversea for optometry degree. But will be very ex... (shaking his head)
Me: Thanks. (in my mind: Mr beat-around-the bush guy how do u get your current post by with your beat-around-the-bush skills??? )
After we exit for the MLT, we met the president of SOP who gave me more info regarding my study. He told me to try Australia Uni and the yearly cost will be roughly S$40K... Wow!! That's ex... He also said that i can try to apply for non-bond scholarship since i intend to work in my aunt's shop upon graduation. Just got to try my best as i believe it will be a really heavy burden to sponsor my study fully.
gtg... really glad that i got the new urban male .com bag(bradmini-brown) today... I really loved it.... (cost== quality) well, the guys working in New urban male .com shop in Herren and city link are quite good looking... *o*
YueN signing off... nitez..
