We’re all feeling the added burden of employee turnover and difficulty in hiring, and training your staff is more important than ever. Not only does your office need successful training to get new hires up to speed, but a continual commitment to office training is essential for existing employees to envision a long-term career in this profession by empowering them with opportunities to grow, learn, and develop. 

Our guest on this episode is Jonathan Smith, Director of Training North America at EssilorLuxottica.  “We look at the industry, and it’s a growing industry, and we see the opportunities in the industry being centered around the transfer of knowledge,” he explains at the top of the show. “We see the opportunity to advance education and training, to modernize it and bring it to a new, fresh perspective. That’s why we created Leonardo.” 

Leonardo is an open platform featuring sleek, short videos that can be easily consumed in the flow of daily work, all available 24/7 and easy to access on a computer, tablet, or mobile device. With over 5760 hours of video, interactive lessons, and virtual classrooms in over 15 languages, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. The platform will suggest new content based on the content you engage and interact with to recommend courses based on your interests, meaning that no two users will receive the exact same experience. All courses on vision care are carefully conceived and taught by experts — ensuring learners have access to the latest scientific and clinical insights.

Leonardo is replacing Luxottica University and ECP University with a seamless transition – all usernames and email addresses used by existing customers with these previous legacy platforms will give them access to Leonardo. The training platform is open to all eyecare professionals, students, and even patients. Since the soft launch in May 2021, Leonardo has delivered over 1 million hours of learning globally. The most popular videos to date have been about Ray Ban and Oakley brand education and strategies for selling luxury goods. 

The name Leonardo is a nod towards the Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and scientist Leonardo da Vinci who laid the foundations for modern culture through his studies and became a universal symbol of innovation. In fact, the logo for Leonardo is “science for a new vision” and the goal of the platform is to embrace both the art and the science of eyecare for a visually stunning and highly informative experience. 

The core platform is completely free to access, but there is also a premium section which will soon provide ABO and SECO continuing education Content, as well as a series of master classes. Future buildouts of the program will also include gamification with leaderboards and the ability to earn brand ambassador status based on courses completed. 

Ready to check out this new, modern way for your entire office to learn? Head to http://leonardo.essilorluxottica.com