Australian supplier Eyes Right Optical has donated 1,500 frames to the Australasian College of Optical Dispensing (ACOD), helping ensure the training provider can run workshops that simulate real world optical practice experience.
The company, operated by siblings Mark and Lisa Wymond who also own Modstyle and Sunglass Collective, donated assorted brands from Eyes Right and Modstyle collections that previously would have had a wholesale value of $100,000.
ACOD is now in its fifth year of existence and the Wymonds have donated frames at least every second year.
“James’s passion for dispensing and education is a great asset to Australian optical industry,” Mark Wymond, managing director, said. “A strong education program helps the whole industry, and we are happy to help.”
ACOD director and senior trainer Mr James Gibbins said it was vital students had access to new frames.
“It makes the workshops so much more realistic and engaging,” he said.
“In our experience in other colleges and schools, we always had limited frames to use and had to re-use them again and again, so they sometimes became quite unstable and fragile. Not great for a new student’s confidence if the frame falls apart on them, and it wasn’t their fault because the frame had been heated and manipulated a hundred times before.”
Gibbins said the donation could not have been better-timed, considering the college’s influx in enrolments due to the government’s traineeship incentives announced in the Federal Budget.
“The workshops for these students will all take place this year and early next year. We currently have a reasonable stock of frames, but now we are well stocked for the next year or so,” he said.
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