About Us
BC College of Optics is Canada's first private post-secondary training facility teaching opticianry and contact lens fitting exclusively. Founded in 1984, BC College of Optics offered British Columbians an opportunity to receive hands-on, in-house training as an alternative to an existing opticianry correspondence course that required its students to receive training by way of a long-term apprenticeship program.

Accreditation
BC College of Optics is registered as a post-secondary training institution with British Columbia's Private Career Training Institutions Agency of British Columbia (PCTIA). Additionally, our training facility has been formally accredited since 1998.

History
In 1984, the predecessor to BC College of Optics was registered and regulated by British Columbia's Ministry of Education, Apprenticeship Branch. Holding classes in a 600 square foot facility, our school soon outgrew its surroundings and moved to larger premises in 1988.

At that time, the only other method of obtaining training in Ophthalmic Dispensing or Contact Lens Fitting in British Columbia was by a distance-learning program administered by the Dispensing Opticians Association of BC (DOABC). In 1995, a two (2)-year public College Diploma opticianry program was established at Douglas College.

In 1996, formal licensure in both Dispensing and Contact Lens Fitting became a requirement in British Columbia and a new regulatory College of Opticians of British Columbia (COBC) was formed to regulate this profession. By October 1998, BC College of Optics received its formal Accreditation. In 2004 PCTIA took over the responsibility of regulating private career training in BC, and in January 2004 our school moved to larger premises...to its present location on King George Hwy in Surrey, British Columbia.

BC College of Optics is also a member of the National Federation of Opticianry Schools (NFOS). NFOS is an organization of North American opticianry schools dedicated to the advancement of formal education in opticianry.

Faculty & Staff
Ted Morse, ABOM, FCLSA is founder, Program Director and one of the instructors at BC College of Optics. He is certified as a Master Optician (ABOM) by the American Board of Opticianry (ABO) and is one of few Canadians that holds Fellow (FCLSA) status with the prestigious Contact Lens Society of America (CLSA). Ted Morse is also registered as an Optician and Certified Contact Lens Fitter by British Columbia's regulatory COBC, and served as elected representative to the Board of Directors of COBC from 1996-1999.

Mr. Morse has presented seminars at both Canadian and U.S. opticianry conventions, and has published a two (2)-part contact lens article in Canada's PRISM opticianry magazine.

Sheree Watson, ABO, NCLE is an instructor at BC College of Optics and has received certification both as a Certified Optician by the American Board of Opticianry (ABO) and as a Registered Contact Lens Fitter by the National Contact Lens Examiners (NCLE). A graduate of BC College of Optics in 1992, Ms. Watson has owned and operated her own optical dispensary on BC's Sunshine Coast since 1993. Her retail dispensary is presently being managed by her son David Watson, himself a 1995 graduate of BC College of Optics.

Ms. Watson is registered as an Optician and Contact Lens Fitter by British Columbia's College of Opticians of BC (COBC), and was also elected to the Board of Directors of the Dispensing Opticians Association of BC (DOABC) from 1995-98.