Specsavers welcomes new graduate cohort

Specsavers has welcomed our newest cohort of graduate optometrists across Australia and New Zealand in a new innovative and engaging way with our first ever “hybrid-virtual” Graduate Induction event. With COVID requirements still impacting travel, our cohorts each participated in the event “in region” at our local training centres in Auckland, WA, QLD, NSW, SA & VIC with our team live streaming the content from our Graduate Induction HQ at Specsavers support office in Melbourne.

This is the first time something of this nature has ever been attempted at Specsavers, and with the graduates participating face-to-face in region they were able to experience the best of both worlds – networking with their local colleagues as well as receiving valuable training and resources from our support team in Melbourne.

The two-day event included a jam-packed agenda of virtual presentations, network-building activities, and workshops to enhance both personal and professional development, plus a social welcome function in each state.

The Specsavers Graduate program is a unique offering, providing a structured, two-year development program that provides our graduates with clinical and commercial knowledge to grow their clinical skills and expertise, and offers a combination of professional events, courses, and experiences designed specifically to enrich personal and professional growth.

The Specsavers Graduate program comprises three areas or pillars of our optometrists’ development through mentorship: continuing education and professional development; commercial and inter-professional perspectives and formal feedback.

These elements are delivered through workshops, online programs, case studies, presentations, in persona and virtual development meetings and clinical skills training and seminars, providing our optometrists with the tools and training to help excel in-store and nurture business acumen.

Specsavers Director of Professional Recruitment ANZ, Raj Sundarjee said “While we always love to bring our graduates to Victoria for induction, the current global climate means we need to continually innovate and think outside the square to deliver great experience and training to our graduates. I’m thrilled to welcome these early career optometrists to our graduate program and using the latest technology, still provide them with a fantastic induction experience to kick-start their Specsavers careers.”