Opticians can get certified through the National Opticianry Competency Examination and the Contact Lens Registry Examination. These are commonly known as the NOCE and CLRE exams. The tests are created by the American Board of Opticianry (ABO) and National Contact Lens Examiners (NCLE).
There are no formal educational requirements at the national level to get optician certification or being certified for dispensing of contact lenses. However, there are some state boards that may require specific training for a license. You may contact your state optometry board to see if opticians have special licensing requirements in your state. At the national level, you simply must be 18 and have a high school diploma or GED.
Sidebar: Do not confuse opticians with optometrists. Optometrists have rigorous training and experience requirements to get licensed. Opticians generally are those who either work with optometrists or work separately selling glasses and contact lenses.
However, the ABO and NCLE recommend completion of an optical school and 2 to 3 years of experience. This is simply because you will be better equipped to handle the material on the optician or contact lens certification exams if you have had formal optician training and hands-on experience in the field.
To get ready for either the NOCE or CLRE exams, you need to find out exactly what is on the tests. You can find these at the ABO-NCLE website. See the links in the Resources below to find the exam content outlines for these optician certification exams.
The reason attending an optician school greatly increases your chances of passing the optician certification exam is because these organizations are not very open about how to prepare for the NOCE and CLRE tests. They only release those very basic content outlines found in the Resources below.
Now, it is still possible to go to a college bookstore or look online for the major textbooks used in optical schools. Whether you want to go this route depends on how good you are at self-study. Some people can just read and pick up most of the knowledge necessary to pass the certification exam. Others need some hands-on instruction.
If you would like to check your options for attending an opticianry school, there is a list of schools approved by the National Federation of Opticianry Schools. Typically, expect to spend about a year or a little longer to complete your optical school. Alternatively, you may contact the schools and ask to purchase the textbooks used in the program for self-study purposes.
As stated above, there is no list of NOCE or CLRE exam references put out by the organizations. So this leaves you with either attending a school or talking to one and finding out which books to study to get ready for the optician certification exam.
Resources:
ABO-NCLE: NOCE Optician Exam Content Outline and Test Specifications
ABO-NCLE: CLRE Contact Lens Dispensing Certification Test Content Outline and Test Specifications
National Federation of Opticianry Schools: List of Approved Optical Schools