Teaching old dogs new tricks

Written by Colin Gillman | 21 September 2011

I have been thinking a lot about training lately. Of particular interest to me is the matter of retraining. Our industry is currently obsessed with youth and finding ways to make the printing industry seem more appealing to younger people. It is doing a pretty good job of it too if Proskills and its PrintIt campaign is anything to go by, and long may this continue. But what about retraining all of the old dogs who have worked in our industry for years who now need to learn a new trick?

When I was a lad and it came time to leave school and get a job, my career options were somewhat limited. The British Empire was no more so out went any fantasies pertaining to administration in far flung tropical places. My options seemed pretty bleak. It was either work in a large factory doing something mind numbingly dull such as sheet metal handling; become a green grocer (local slang for an armed robber); or ‘go into the print’ as my old man and brother had before me.

One of my school pals chose to go straight into an apprenticeship as a press minder; while I opted to cut my teeth in grand format photographic printing as a contact repro camera operator, before going on to do my stint at the London College of Printing to get my litho printing papers.

I have since enjoyed a wonderful, varied and fun career in our industry, learning from some truly great people who I have both respected and admired along the way. My pal, on the other hand, has remained firmly on the tools as a journeyman press operator and has been in continual well paid employment at just about every top flight West London printing house, with hardly a day out of work in some thirty odd years in the industry.

Unfortunately for him, now that work in the litho sector is drying up quicker than MEK on a rubber blanket, he has recently been made redundant and is wondering how to find a low cost way to retrain and learn to operate something ‘digital’ (enter your preferred digital production process here) so that he can comfortably see out his time in the industry whilst engaged in substantial gainful activity.

So how does a pres minder or finisher go about retraining for a digital future? Who do you turn to for help and advice, and how do you decide what type of digital printing you should go into? Should it be high volume cut sheet colour production or wide format? Cut sheet production would obviously provide a wealth of opportunities for an experienced multi colour press minder. After all, they will already have a strong working knowledge of colour and in matching colours to proofs. The same could be said for wide format production, albeit in a differing sector, but market convergence will eventually mean that more conventional commercial (litho) printing companies will be installing wide format machines.

To my knowledge there are no free courses for beginners in either sector unless it comes with the purchase of new kit, and I have never heard tell of Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta etc. offering free courses to enable litho operators to retrain into digital. Therefore I figured I would have a chat with my old mate Sidney Bobb, chairman of the British Association of Print & Communication (BAPC).

Sid is one of those guys that knows everybody, and he immediately put me in touch with the people at Proskills who have many training courses on offer. However, many of the courses offered by Proskills aren’t entirely free, although some grants are available. I also noted that many of the Proskills courses are NVQ based which is fine when you are in your prime, but might otherwise seem a little daunting to the more mature press operator looking for a simple instructional, hands-on short course.

I was also trying to put myself in my pal’s shoes and see things from his perspective, so I pushed Sid a little harder asking him what he would do if he was in a similar position. I wanted him to imagine that he was out of work, strapped for cash and seemingly had no future in an industry that he had dedicated the best part of his adult life. That’s different said the old salt. You need to speak with The Printing Charity. Sid told me that The Printing Charity helps people who are experiencing financial hardship, and over the last 3 years have given away more than £1million in benefits to those serving the printing and allied trades.

What I learned from speaking with the charity was that it suffers not from a lack of funding, but rather a lack of exposure to the very people it aims to support such as those working on the shop floor. I was also delighted to learn that The Printing Charity has recently introduced a new grant scheme to help printers and minders to pay for training and retraining courses, and/or associated costs. I am told that the charity generally considers amounts of up to £500, which it says can be exceeded and even be used to retrain for work outside of the printing industry.

Therefore if you are working in the printing and allied trades and find yourself faced with the possibility of redundancy, and are worrying about how you might be able to afford to retrain for a digital future, help is at hand. All you need do is get in touch with Henry Smith, the grants officer at The Printing Charity on 01293 542 820 or by email henry@theprintingcharity.org.uk and discuss your situation. You might find that you can still teach an old dog a new trick.

If you are a manufacturer of digital production equipment and have a scheme in place to help provide retraining for those looking to break into digital printing, please leave details of your course in the comments section below.

Colin Gillman

colin@graphicdisplayworld.com

07961 484599

www.twitter.com/colingillman