Business News
Proskills adds its name to support for print at The Skills Show
Monday 12. November 2012 - Proskills and its National Skills Academy for Materials, Production and Supply is joining Heidelberg, the BPIF, X-Rite and Sappi in supporting the printing competition that is taking place this week at the NEC. Richard Moore, Industry Lead - print and paper for Proskills, says his hope is that The Skills Show will open teenage eyes to the opportunities in print, make employers aware of the need for training and alter any misconceptions about the paper and printing industry.
“Proskills is a standard-setting organisation and one of my aims is to promote the PrintIT! initiative that encourages teenagers to be involved with design using paper and print to produce a range of products. We want them to see that these industries are vibrant and offer worthwhile careers. We also want to eliminate misunderstandings about the industry, any teenage perceptions that the printing industry is archaic, destroying rainforests or dangerous. But I would also like employers to recognise that it is no more sensible to put a young recruit into print without training as it would be to put them into a car without lessons or a test. They need training to enable them to work safely and competently.”
Mr Moore will be on hand with advice and career collatoral as the four short-listed printing apprentices do battle for the Gold Medal in the printing section. They are expected to be able to competently run a five-colour offset litho printing press and guillotine and to have an understanding of consumables, including the ability to mix a special to a defined Pantone colour and to be able to measure and monitor colour.
The apprentices short listed are: Jamie Cleaver, Warwick Printing; Craig Clifford, Stirland & Paterson; Ashley Howland, Hartgraph; and Jordan Moore, Phase Print. They have already been put through their paces with a familiarisation programme at Heidelberg UK’s Brentford headquarters. After the opening ceremony at the NEC this Wednesday the battle will commence.
Mark Hogan, marketing director of Heidelberg UK, says: “We are really pleased that Proksills is joining us in the quest to show just how skilled and creative our industry can be. We need to engage and win the hearts and minds of young people who will be the ones who take our industry on into an exciting cross media world. Print has a very strong future and these competing apprentices will demonstrate how rewarding it can be to produce quality results under pressure, the reality of life in printing today.”