Lens lab visit for Bradford students

Bradford College recently organised a lab tour visit to Optimum RxLens Specialists to support its students with their professional qualification portfolios.

Several lecturers and students from two different year groups travelled via coach from Bradford College to Optimum Rx Lens Specialists in Morecambe. Customer service sales manager, Rayna Greenfield, organised the logistics of the day to optimise the student learning experience.

Upon arrival at the manufacturing facility, Rayna gave a presentation on the history of the organisation and then introduced all the various staff members who supported the co-ordination of the day.

Speaking after the event, Robin Rohu, a lecturer in ophthalmic dispensing and contact lenses at Bradford College, said: “I was extremely impressed with Optimum Rx Lens Specialists. They accommodated students from multiple year groups, provided catering, and gave each student a welcome pack containing lens catalogues to take away after the visit.

“This lab tour experience was absolutely fantastic and will leave every student who attended in a strong position to write a detailed report for case record 51. Furthermore, the experience has reinforced the level of work and precision that is required within lens manufacturing,” added Robin.

Students were broken into four groups, customer service, surfacing, coatings, tinting and glazing. Each group of students was led by staff members of optimum who had considerable experience within ophthalmic lens manufacturing. All staff members provided an insightful explanation of the various processes throughout the facility, which began with placing semi-finished lenses into a job tray and ended with a packaged job which had been approved via the quality assurance process. Furthermore, they highlighted to students the potential issues that may occur during the manufacturing process to further reinforce why the process is rationalised.

Portia Clarke is a third-year FdSc student. Providing feedback on the experience, Portia said: “We were truly made to feel welcome by the whole Optimum team. The passion and commitment to providing the best quality product is amazing. Having gained a greater understanding of their products will definitely help dispense the most suitable lenses for my patient.”

Zahra Sheikh, a third-year BSc (Hons) student, remarked: The experience at Optimum was very interesting. Each section was well explained. All the staff were friendly and welcoming.”

Rayna said: “We were delighted to host a large group of students and tutors from Bradford college and support them in completing the ABDO case record 51 lab visit. Students were shown our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, which included our specialist complex freeform production lab, hard and AR coating departments along with our glazing lab. We were able to demonstrate our complex and high prescription lenses several of which the group had not seen before.

“We welcomed the opportunity to further build on our strong relationship with Bradford College and were impressed by the interest & energy of the Dispensing Opticians of the future.

Bradford College has extended its thanks to Optimum Rx Lens Specialists, “who were incredibly supportive of all of our ophthalmic dispensing students. We look forward to working with Optimum in the future”.