You become an optician by picking one of three routes: training on the job, completing a formal apprenticeship, or finishing a 1-year certificate or 2-year associate degree in opticianry.
Which route comes first depends on your state — 22 states plus Puerto Rico have opticianry licensing boards, per ABO-NCLE’s October 2026 list — and ABO/NCLE certification is an optional national credential on top.
Here is how each route works.
What do you need to become an optician?
Opticians fit customers for eyeglasses and contact lenses and help them select frames and lenses, filling prescriptions written by optometrists and ophthalmologists.
In the United States they do not examine eyes or prescribe.
The baseline BLS describes is a high school diploma plus long-term on-the-job training.
Some opticians add a 1-year certificate or a 2-year associate degree, and others enter through apprenticeship.
The skills BLS flags for the occupation are business, communication, customer service, decision-making, detail orientation and dexterity — the job includes using pliers and pupilometers to adjust and repair eyeglasses.
The variable is the state.
ABO-NCLE’s list of opticianry licensing boards, read in October 2026, covers 22 states plus Puerto Rico, so the requirement attached to the same job title changes at the state line.
So the short answer to “what do you need”: a high school diploma to start, one of the three routes below to learn the trade, and — where a state board exists — whatever that board requires.
The optician career guide covers what the dispensing role involves day to day; this page stays on how to get in.
Route 1: start in an optical and train on the job
The route BLS describes as typical starts at the counter: a high school diploma, a job in an optical, and long-term on-the-job training.
On-the-job training is the dispensing floor itself: measuring and fitting eyewear, filling the prescriptions optometrists and ophthalmologists write, adjusting and repairing frames with tools such as pliers and pupilometers, and helping customers select frames and lenses.
The FTC’s Eyeglass Rule defines “ophthalmic services” as the measuring, fitting and adjusting of ophthalmic goods after a refractive eye examination — that is the work a trainee learns on the floor.
Read job postings loosely while you search.
O*NET’s sample titles for dispensing opticians include Contact Lens Technician, Ophthalmic Dispenser, Certified Optician and even Optometric Technician — employers label overlapping work differently, so filter by the duties, not the title.
When you interview for a trainee post, ask who does the training and against what.
An employer that can name the optician or doctor you would learn under, and the measurements you would be taught, is describing a real training plan.
One step over on the retail floor is the optical assistant role — sales work that teaches frames, lenses and customers while you decide whether to commit to dispensing.
Where a state regulates dispensing, what a trainee may do before registering or licensure is the board’s call — confirm those limits with the board before you accept tasks.
Route 2: a formal apprenticeship
An apprenticeship is supervised learning with structure: supervised work tracked against a plan, instead of training picked up ad hoc.
BLS names apprenticeship as one of the ways people enter the occupation.
Its summary of state licensure is the same sentence from the other direction: licensure usually requires passing one or more exams, plus completing an approved educational program or an apprenticeship or other supervised work experience.
The federal system has a slot for it.
O*NET lists two Department of Labor-approved Registered Apprenticeship titles for dispensing opticians — one is Optician Dispensing — and places the occupation in Job Zone Three: medium preparation, usually one or two years of training.
Two licensing states show how the route can sit in state law: Washington lets licensure applicants qualify through at least three years of apprenticeship, and South Carolina through a board-approved two-year apprenticeship plus an exam.
Our research found no single national length for an opticianry apprenticeship, and did not establish who sets the terms in states without an opticianry board.
In a licensing state, take any hour or year total you read anywhere back to the board before you sign an agreement.
Apprenticeship suits people who would rather learn the trade in the workplace than in a classroom.
The trade-off is that in a licensing state its terms live in state law rather than a course catalog, so the board is the authority for what you are agreeing to.
Route 3: an opticianry certificate or associate degree
The classroom route is a postsecondary program at a community college or technical school.
BLS says these programs award a 2-year associate degree or a 1-year certificate.
The accreditor to check is the Commission on Opticianry Accreditation (COA), a not-for-profit recognized by CHEA that accredits two-year opticianry degree programs in the United States.
COA’s directory listed 17 accredited opticianry programs as of October 12, 2026, most of them community and technical college programs and one, Tri-Service Optician School, run by the military.
A program does two jobs at once.
It teaches the trade in a classroom instead of on the floor, and in licensing states an approved education program is usually one of the routes boards count toward licensure, alongside exams.
This page does not rank programs; COA’s directory is the list to work from, and each program’s admissions office is the source for its own entry requirements and calendar.
The certificate-versus-degree choice follows your state and your timeline — check whether your board counts the credential you are considering before you enroll.
Do you need a license? It depends on your state
Sometimes — it depends on where you practice.
ABO-NCLE, the national certification body, keeps the working map: its opticianry licensing board list, read in October 2026, covers 22 states plus Puerto Rico.
The United Opticians Association also counts 22 states as requiring some type of certification or licensure.
That association is new under the name: it formed in 2024 when the Opticians Association of America unified with the National Federation of Opticianry Schools.
Where a board governs, BLS’s summary of the pattern holds: passing one or more exams, plus an approved educational program or an apprenticeship or other supervised work experience.
The map moves, too.
Texas repealed its optician registration and its contact lens dispenser permit effective September 1, 2015 — a reminder that the rule you read about a state may not be the rule in force.
Licensing also reorders the three routes.
In a licensing state, the trainee job, the apprenticeship and the program are not just ways to learn the trade — licensure usually requires passing the board’s exams plus exactly that kind of supervised experience or approved education.
Which states regulate, what each statute requires, which exams each board uses, applying, fees and renewal: that detail belongs to how to get an optician license rather than this one.
Rules change — confirm with the board
Should you get ABO certification?
ABO and NCLE certification is the national, voluntary credential.
The American Board of Opticianry & National Contact Lens Examiners — ABO-NCLE — runs it: ABO certifies spectacle opticians and NCLE certifies contact lens fitters and dispensers.
It is not a license.
ABO-NCLE describes its exams as voluntary competency certification, separate from state licensure — a certified optician is not automatically licensed, and in licensing states the state credential is what permits practice.
Why get it anyway?
BLS notes that employers may prefer certified candidates, and ABO-NCLE says its certifications are used or recognized by state licensing authorities, employers and schools.
Where your state does not license the trade, certification is a credential an employer can check.
The entry price and eligibility are modest.
The basic exams — the National Opticianry Competency Examination (NOCE) on the ABO side and the Contact Lens Registry Exam (CLRE) on the NCLE side — require a high school diploma or GED, with no prior optical experience required, and cost $275 each in 2026.
Each basic exam runs 125 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours, with some unscored pretest items, and ABO-NCLE offers them year-round in four testing windows.
A state board may set stricter eligibility for the exams it requires for licensure.
Pass rates are not a formality: ABO-NCLE reported 2024 pass rates of 64.0% for the ABO basic exam and 59.0% for the NCLE basic exam.
Certification renews every three years, with a $175 renewal fee plus continuing education credits.
The order of operations matters: in a licensing state, the state’s requirements come first and certification complements them; everywhere else, what a candidate can show an employer is training plus certification.
How long does each route take?
On the job: BLS’s own label is long-term on-the-job training — a category, not a month count — so the timeline is your employer’s training plan.
The closest thing to a national range in the federal data is O*NET’s Job Zone Three placement for the occupation: medium preparation, usually one or two years of training.
The classroom routes have fixed shapes: one year for a certificate, two years for an associate degree.
Our research found no single national apprenticeship length.
Washington’s statute counts at least three years of apprenticeship and South Carolina’s a board-approved two-year apprenticeship, so in a licensing state, ask the board before you plan around a number you read anywhere.
Build retake time into the plan for the certification exams.
After a failed ABO or NCLE basic attempt you can retest after 14 days, but after a third unsuccessful attempt the wait is 90 days, and each attempt requires a new exam fee.
On the certification side the calendar is flexible: the ABO and NCLE basics run year-round in four testing windows.
A state licensing exam is scheduled by the board that requires it.
Plan the sequence rather than a single date — entry job or enrollment first, supervised experience accumulating, exams when you are eligible.
Getting your first optician job
Aim the search where the jobs are.
BLS’s Employment Projections counted about 74,300 optician jobs in 2025, a count that includes the self-employed.
Offices of optometrists were the largest employer at 43%, followed by general merchandise retailers at 23%, health and personal care retailers at 20% and offices of physicians at 8%.
The outlook adds context: BLS projects 4% employment growth from 2025 to 2035, with about 5,600 openings a year.
Interview on the work, not the title.
Lead with what your route gave you: the measurements and adjustments you can already perform, the frame and lens products you know, and any certification you hold — BLS notes that employers may prefer certified candidates.
Set expectations on the schedule, too.
BLS describes most opticians as working full time, with part-time work common and evenings and weekends possible.
If you run the optical instead of job hunting, you can read the employer-side hiring guides and post an optician job from there.
Career information, not licensing, legal, medical, clinical or billing advice. Licensing, exam and certification rules change — confirm the current requirements with your state’s opticianry licensing board, and with ABO-NCLE for certification.