Education trends in the printing industry

Teach a printer to print and he'll be in business; teach a printer to print with today's technology and a customer focus, and he'll be successful. As a wise man once said: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat dinner tonight. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime!"

The need for new technology, new production methods and new skills for the workforce enhances the need to train new skills to prospective students who are seeking opportunities to join the printing industry.

As we already know, the printing industry is passing through a state of transition from offset printing to digital printing, from a general to a very specialised product.

The printing industry in Malta accounts for 2.61 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), which shows that it is making a significant contribution to the nation's economic well-being. To quote HSBC's head of Personal Financial Services, Godfrey Swain: "The industry employs nearly 2,000 workers who are earning Lm11.5 million, according to NSO figures. It generates Lm16 million in local sales and Lm32 million in exports. In 2004, investment in plant and machinery totalled Lm5.5 million".

We all recognise that education is the key to securing a prosperous future for our careers. It plays a vital role in helping to recruit and retrain a highly skilled workforce for the print industry, as well as to provide the training and tools that will enable printing customers to thrive and grow with the help of the industry.

Therefore, we now understand how important it is to have technically trained people who will eventually perform better to the benefit of IT. Parents, teacher, counsellors and friends influence young people's career decisions most strongly.

The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) offers students a BTEC First Diploma in Printing and the Journeyman's Trade Skill Course, which are conducted together. The printing diploma focuses on education and training, providing opportunities for learners intending to seek employment in the trade.

This qualification provides learners with opportunities to develop a range of skills and techniques, personal qualities and attitudes essential for successful performance in one's working life. These are the study units: a) Design and origination; b) Materials technology; c) Printing organisation; d) Research and design; e) Production and finishing; and f) Post press.

The number of presses investing in these students is growing year by year since the inception of the BTEC Diploma. They are providing work placements during training and eventually, after graduation, offering students full-time employment in the industry. Still, much is expected from both MCAST and the education authorities, where technical changes in the trade need new tools and machinery besides students' exchange schemes that would enhance the students' learning environment.

I have been conducting printing courses since 1971 and have exper-ienced a big transition, from hand set and mechanical set type to digital computerised image origination. Those days these opportunities were only on offer if you happened to be either an apprentice at the Government Press or living in an institution which the Salesians of Don Bosco run at St Patrick's Salesian School, Sliema, or at St Joseph's Home, Hamrun. The first public printing certification was started by the Salesians when they introduced the City and Guilds Qualification in Printing in 1964.

Five years ago, with the setting up of MCAST, the educational training of printing students continued to be taught at the Art and Design Institute in Targa Gap, Mosta. We can only improve our delivery of printing skills if there is more support from the educational authorities, so we can continue to enhance the training of the workforce for the printing industry.

Results show that locally there is a continuous demand for skilled workers in various fields of the printing trade, such as skilled guillotine operators, printing machine and folding machine operators, and print finishers, who have to know how to work on more than one machine, such as laminators, hard-case makers and auto stitchers.

This is being attained by having eight or ten students graduating from the Printing BTEC course at the Art and Design Institute on an annual basis. Since the inception of the course, all found employment in the industry and some also arrived at a stage where they negotiated their weekly wage to a handsome package and are building a sucessful future in printing.

Young people want career information to be visually attractive. Students want to rely on hands-on opportunities, such as job shadowing, plant visits and apprenticeships. We need to provide them with programmes and learning resources that meet their needs, educate them about the print media industry and convince them of the many opportunities it offers.

Mr Muscat is a printing lecturer at MCAST, a job he has held for the past 28 years. As a ten-year-old boy, Mr Muscat already had a good background of printing. At the tender age of seven he lost his father and was enrolled at St Patrick's Salesian School.

As a ten-year-old boy, Mr Muscat had already got a good idea of the trade. After finishing his schooling, he was offered his first job at Progress Press as a pagesetter in the Linotype Department and never looked back.