Lab technician wins Wiseman Memorial Prize

Caledonian Optical lab technician, Keith Milne, is celebrating being awarded the highest marks in the SMC Tech (Level 4) exams – the most challenging test of spectacle lens manufacturing.

Keith, who works at the company’s Elgin lab, has received the annual Wiseman Memorial Prize, which has been given since the 1950s in recognition of excellence in this qualification.

Keith, who started work on the exams more than two years ago, said: “I started at the lab 12 years ago and my boss trained me up, but I was keen to have something on paper as an official qualification. They were very happy and sponsored me through the course. The first year was OK, once you had got year head around doing maths again. The second year was a bit more challenging, but the workload was fine with doing my job as well.”

Keith particularly enjoyed the section on coatings: “The way they work, and the maths behind it, plus the pros and cons. It’s not something I put much thought into beforehand. Also, how compensated powers come about. Whatever part of the SMC (Tech) course you are doing, if you work in a lab, you can apply the knowledge the very next day.”

Caledonian Optical has five labs throughout Scotland and supports the glazing requirements of the 50+ shops of the Duncan and Todd group of opticians.

“My bosses were thrilled with the result and are hoping it will start a gateway for people to come forward, who would also like to do the course,” added Keith. “Since I passed I have been promoted to company trainer and will be mentoring other lab technicians in the group. We are starting to roll out remote tracing to the shops too, so I will be getting about and training the teams on how it all works. The exam has really opened up quite an opportunity for me.”