The Professional Enhancement Program

The College’s core mandate is to ensure public safety. Quality assurance is one of the mechanisms by which the College supports registrants in effectively evolving their professional competence over their careers so that the services they provide to the public are safe and effective.

To further enable registrants to provide the highest level of service to the public, the College has introduced a new aspect of quality assurance – the Professional Enhancement Program (PEP).

Based on the Career-Span Competence Approach and a core set of competencies, which align with CDOBC Standards of Practice, the Professional Enhancement Program will enable registrants to better manage their on-going, career-long, professional development and rise above minimum standards to become “the best you can be”. 

The Professional Enhancement Program was launched in January 2023.


PEP Development & Implementation

The College worked closely with the Career-Span Competence Collaborative (www.careerspancompetence.com) in the development and implementation of the Professional Enhancement Program. Importantly, this work also engaged registrants through the PEP Advisory Group (active from July to December 2022) and in pilot testing the PEP Portal (fall 2022).


“As our profession evolves, we too must change to keep up with an ever changing landscape.  The professional enhancement program is designed to help each individual practitioner grow in a way that promotes positive self-reflection and engage in meaningful professional development.  As a practitioner of 13 years and a board member of the college I whole heartedly stand behind the PEP”.

Registered Optometrists & member of the PEP Advisory Group.


To learn more:

Overview – The Professional Enhancement Program

The Professional Enhancement Program (PEP) is based upon a set of competencies – the Career Span Competencies – which are inherent in the CSC Approach.  The Career-Span Competencies align with the CDOBC Standards of Practice; in fact, through a survey that took place in 2016 when the Standards of Practice were being developed, registrants validated the Career-Span Competencies as very important in optometric practice.

The PEP is different from traditional quality assurance programming – it does not focus on counting education units, technical skills alone, and the College over-seeing what registrants are doing in relation to their professional development. The intent of the PEP is to:

  • Recognize that each registrant has their own, unique career path.
  • Place the responsibility of managing career and professional development firmly in the registrant’s own hands.
  • Engage registrants in meaningful professional development activities that are directly linked to workplace performance.
  • Bring attention to the important “soft” (non-technical) skills.
  • Enable registrants to engage in career-long reflective practice.

Program components

The Professional Enhancement Program (PEP) consists of 3 components:

1. Self-Assessment
2. My Professional Development (PD) Plan
3. My Professional Development (PD) Plan Review

The conceptual framework behind the Professional Enhancement Program is the
Career-Span Competence (CSC) Approach.  To learn more:

View the short (2-minute) CSC Approach Introductory Video 

Read more here (“The PEP Conceptual Framework”).