Esko, a global supplier of integrated hardware and software for customers in the label, packaging and wide format sectors, has recently delivered a new training programme in collaboration with the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) special interest group, BPIF Cartons, for converters seeking to develop their new employees and young talent.
The ‘Introduction To Prepress and Structural Design’ course was delivered to folding carton manufacturers at the Esko UK training facility in Solihull, and is the start of a range of courses to be rolled out by Esko in cooperation with the print industries' trade association.
Melanie Fox, Sales Manager at Esko UK, said: “We have observed a decrease of skill level – or ‘deskilling’ – in the industry, which is becoming a problematic trend compounded by many experienced experts reaching their retirement age and leaving the industry without formally documenting their accrued ‘tribal knowledge’.
“Young people are showing less and less interest in a technical printing education, and these two trends combined result in a perfect storm that Esko, together with the BPIF, is addressing with this training programme,” said Melanie.
“This particular course was developed specifically to address these issues, and aimed to provide a concise overview of tasks associated with both structural design and prepress,” she said. “The structural design (CAD) aspect of the course focused on simplification through the use of ArtiosCAD parametric design libraries and how packaging designs are easily translated into 3D views to minimize errors in production.
“The prepress section demonstrated how everyday prepress tasks such as trapping, step and repeat and adding print control marks is achieved using Artpro+, with minimal operator interaction. Lastly, the course provided an overview of Color Management within the packaging environment, explaining how and why converters ensure their customers products are represented consistently and accurately on shelf, especially taking accurate and consistent reproduction of brand colors into consideration.
“By working with BPIF Cartons we are able to meet the needs of a wide range of their converter members and we hope this is just the start of a fruitful relationship with the group,” added Melanie. “Esko is proud to be supporting the future talent of the print and packaging industries in this way.”
Jon Clark, General Manager of BPIF Cartons, said: “We are delighted that Esko are providing BPIF Cartons members with this training. This Prepress Course means that we are now in a position to offer training covering the whole folding carton production process from board-making through prepress, printing, inks and color, die-making, cutting and creasing and finally folding and gluing. Since launching our training courses, 119 people from 23 different companies have attended our various courses and the feedback from attendees is extremely positive.”
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