Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 27 May 2009

Readers see red over new prepress course. Why not let us know your thoughts on the issue, or any of our other stories.

When I did my graphic reproduction apprenticeship (some 30 years ago) we were trained, hands-on, for eight hours a day / five days a week / for the four years, which comes closer to 7500 hours of work experience. I would call that the bare minimum! No person with 250 hours’ experience could ever be called a "tradesperson" – a trainee perhaps but the use of the term "tradesperson" should be treated with a bit more respect.

This is a very disturbing trend.

Russell Hunt
Pre-Press Applications Specialist
Forged Industries

I read this article with interest. Times have changed, however as a former apprentice of the year though the TAFE system my biased view is that Bob is correct and the issue he raises deserves adequate scrutiny.
Bruce Sinnott

I agree that private training organisations need to be audited for quality as I also went to one expecting to gain thorough competence and found I was considered a ‘graphic designer’ after only nine months of intensive study of the programs needed for design and hardly any real life hands-on training or mentoring as to what I would need to do in the real world. I found exercises given to be particularly infuriating. On arriving in a work place I found I was expected to know how to set up not just my own work for printing correctly but know how to check other people’s work and how to fix it, how to run printing copiers and software programs I’d never heard of.

Name withheld

 Regardless of the training provided in a classroom environment, this is no replacement for the "hands-on" training a workplace can provide.  Graduates exit the training establishment as "trainees", not as "operators with experience".

The apprenticeship and trainee programs offered by industry-recognised organisations, (i.e. RMIT; TAFE etc) set a benchmark for training. If other training facilities are to emulate this, there is a need for not only the syllabus to be audited, but also the equipment, software (current versions) and teaching methods to be scrutinised to ensure they meet the standards required in our industry. I suggest this can most effectively be done by printing industry professionals - those providing future employment to the trainees.

Chris Gander

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Re: Blue Star changes labels on Panprint

Weak article, no comment about the loss of jobs.
David Bryant

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Re: Don Quixote fan makes waves at Pride In Print

This is typical of why we don't enter Pride in Print. This is a design and finishing-only feature as the printing can be done by anyone of hundreds of printers to the same standard, and by itself will not attract a second look; but add the component of design and finishing it’s a contender and they are the real prize winners not the printers.

Every day thousands of jobs are printed and dispatched to pleased customers, and with modern machinery and screening technology there is no difference between competing printers to select the best printed job, and it is not rocket science to figure out what makes the difference.

We should have a category of who made the most out of a printed job or who was the most useful to a client with how he can best produce a campaign and both sides make money that would be nice.
Phil Jones