Growing up in Mauritius, Jonathan Nelson had no grand vision of becoming a lab manager or a university lecturer. What he did have was a willingness to learn and a knack for precision. Turns out, it was just what he needed.

I began my career 26 years ago as an optical dispenser, working in a retail practice in Mauritius. Those early years on the shop floor were formative. I quickly learnt that dispensing is as much about listening as it is about lenses.

After six years, I moved into a laboratory, spending four years managing quality control. It was detailed, demanding work, and I loved it. When the opportunity came to step into the lab manager role, I took it. That lab, which became part of the Essilor Group, was my professional home for 22 years in total.

The decision to leave Mauritius was not driven by ambition, but by love. My wife wanted to study early childhood welfare in Australia – specifically working with children from difficult or abusive family situations, a field that simply does not exist in the same way back home. The plan was to settle in Sydney, where we had family. Then COVID arrived and rearranged everything.

We waited. And then we came – not to Sydney, but to Perth. As it turned out, that detour was one of the best things that ever happened to us.

When I arrived, aged 43, I was fortunate to pick up a job working with a lens company. However, I soon realised that to progress my career, I would need to get an Australian-recognised qualification.

I enrolled with ACOD (the Australasian College of Optical Dispensing) and was accepted into the Certificate IV in Optical Dispensing course.

My experience from Europe had helped me build a solid foundation: I had studied dispensing and manufacturing in Germany and later in Italy, so I was able to fast-track through the program. Even so, I found the course genuinely illuminating. There were things I had been doing every day for two decades, procedures I could perform in my sleep, and studying them formally made me ask: why does this work? What is the theory behind what I know intuitively? I learned a great deal. And I am still learning. That, I think, is the mark of a healthy career.

Through ACOD I met Paul Clarke OAM (retired optical dispenser, lecturer, and then Chair of ACOD), whose passion for the profession was immediately apparent. Paul introduced me to Jim Lazarides at Lens X Change in Fremantle, and they were kind enough to facilitate my visa application to settle here. I have not looked back.

Today, my week is divided between two rather different environments. I spend four days a week managing the lab at Lens X Change and one day at the University of Western Australia, teaching optical dispensing alongside my colleague Elliot Scheid. It is a privilege to pass on what I know to the next generation, and to sit in a classroom where people like Paul Clarke lecture with such evident commitment to the craft.

Lens X Change itself is a fascinating operation – genuinely at the frontier of where our industry is heading. It is an online platform that serves eyewear brands: when a customer enters their prescription through one of the partner websites, that order comes through to me. I verify the prescription, specify the correct lenses, and coordinate with partner laboratories. For more complex or unusual prescriptions, I bring the lenses into the Fremantle workshop and complete the fitting here. It is, in essence, online dispensing – and it works, provided you do not cut corners.

That last point matters to me enormously. Lower prices direct to the consumer are genuinely achievable without sacrificing quality. But only if the dispensing is done properly: the right lens, the right base curve, the right fitting height. Get it right the first time, and the customer is yours for life. Get it wrong, and you have undermined the entire proposition.

Behind every pair of spectacles, there is a story: a person’s life, their work, their eyesight. Behind every prescription, there is a story too. My job is to make sure those two stories fit together properly.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of learning from, and working alongside, some truly outstanding professionals – people like Jim Lazarides; Paul Clarke; James Gibbins, and Cheddy Kalach from ACOD; and Jason King (from Essilor), to name a few. While the list could go on, what stands out most is not just the individuals, but the spirit of this industry. Optical dispensing is built on passionate, dedicated, and genuinely caring people, and being part of this community has reignited my passion for the profession in ways I never expected.

Jonathan Nelson is an optical dispenser and the Lab Manager at Lens X Change, based in Fremantle, Western Australia.