Start a Career in Audiology with Specsavers

In partnership with The Prince's Trust and South Devon College, Specsavers are offering a 18-month training apprenticeship to help fast-track you into an exciting career in Audiology as a Trainee Hearing Aid Dispenser.

If you want to see the kind of difference you can make to people's lives then read our stories below.

I saw a lady who was struggling to hear. For some reason, she’d never had a hearing aid in both ears, just in one. I think a previous clinician had thought there was too much of a severe loss, but I thought another aid would definitely work. So I fitted the second aid and her reaction when we turned it on was just amazing. She literally jumped out of her seat and she was so emotional about it. The confidence that having the second aid was amazing to see.

I called her a bit later to see how she was getting on, and the difference that second aid had made to her hearing was remarkable. For me, this is what audiology is all about, having a real impact on people’s lives.

I saw a 22-year-old man recently for a hearing test. He’d been offered a hearing screener when he came in for an eye test, which he had and which indicated a problem with his hearing. When he came to me for his hearing test, to look closer at what was going on, I was not happy at all with the results, so I referred him straight away to a specialist.

He recently came back to see me to say he’d had surgery to remove a long-standing tumour which was on the auditory nerve and affecting his hearing. They think he has had this tumour for many years now and he has simply lived with the good and bad days with his hearing, thinking it was the norm. Everyone should take up the offer of a hearing screener when in the store. Some people – many people – have no idea they have a problem with their hearing and struggle through their daily lives with it. A three-minute screener can identify an issue and can get people to act on an issue, no matter how big or small.

I remember helping one gentleman who communicated with his daughter via video call after she’d moved to Australia. They’d have a call every Sunday morning, sit together, thousands of miles apart, and chat and do the crossword together. But he said it was getting to the point where he was really struggling with his hearing, he couldn’t really hear her, and he was terrified of losing that connection with his daughter.

We did a hearing test and fitted him with hearing aids as an NHS patient. He came back a fortnight later for a check-up and he couldn’t believe the difference they’d made. He could hear his daughter properly again. It meant the world to him. And to me.