Training

[maltyne]

I am very interested to know what is happening with training and how u get new entrants into the industry. In the Uk we seem to have stopped training youngsters about 20 years ago - so have an ageing workforce.
Peter

Hi

I think you are absolutely correct Peter. We have stopped training youngsters here in the UK. I think we need a broad ranged course for design/pre-press entry personnel to train them how to compile digital aw. We often get scans that are good quality scans, but are often given crazy long names, for example: john on the horse riding over the sand dunes in a pink hat! Our system is limited to 13 characters and this causes immense problems, not to mention artworkers and designers who claim to collect for output, only to find half the images are missing. And doesn't it drive you mad when someone sets up an A4 off centre on an A3 with tick marks etc, then saves it as an eps or a pdf expecting the poor printer to get it bang on centre for producing brochures etc. Yes, we definately need some more training courses here in the uk...

 

[txcynna]

Hi

We often get scans that are good quality scans, but are often given crazy long names, for example: john on the horse riding over the sand dunes in a pink hat!.

HolyCrap THIS!! The long names drive me crazy. Also the names that have the special characters in them (&%$#).

I just finished reading this entire thread from the beginning and there are a lot of excellent points made. I did not go to school to get into prepress. I took one class in Pagemaker (I know right?) and got hired at a newspaper to build ads (thus ending my educational career). From there a friend got me into a shop and I've been working in print shops ever since.

At my first shop I learned everything I could. It was all fresh and really interesting to me and I loved it. When I like something I tend to go out of my way to learn as much as I can about it. I often tell people that I wouldn't have wanted to learn the business under any other supervisor cause he was strict but if he saw you needed a "teaching moment", he made sure you got it. Example: Having never worked in print before, folding impositions confused me. He took me out to the press and explained to me how the press and the bindery folders worked and then it made prefect sense. I miss Jim's "teaching moments".

I agree that a lot of shops are now being run by people who have no clue what goes on in prepress and could care less as long as they get a finished product that looks good to them. The place I was before was like that and it made me crazy just letting things that were 'wrong' (according to my training) go through there. I'm not there any more because I couldn't stop asking questions about whether they wanted something fixed... yay. Garbage in=garbage out.

I still love working prepress although it's been tough the last few years. I've had one shop file bankruptcy (They still still owe my $2000 but I'm NOT BITTER!), One shop was sold, one had massive layoffs... yeah. 14 months of unemployment in 2 years as a hard pill to swallow, but it didn't turn me off prepress. Just large print shops. LOL! I am now happily in a small print shop and enjoy being THE prepress/graphics department. I'm not sure how I'll ever get to take a vacation, but hey. I have a job and I love the people here so I'm ahead of the game.

I don't know if this trend is reflected in other areas or not but the graduates trying to find jobs in this area (Dallas/FortWorth) have problems. All the people that lost their jobs due to 'the economy' are taking the entry level positions so they can pay their families' bills. Shops are happy to pay entry level wages to experienced people. College grads are working fast food and retail. My daughter, amazingly, just got hired for a graphics job and managed to escape being one of those degree bearing burger flippers. She has been doing freelance and contract work from Craig's List and looking for a job since graduating nearly a year ago.

 

[amazing1589]

Hi

I think you are absolutely correct Peter. We have stopped training youngsters here in the UK. I think we need a broad ranged course for design/pre-press entry personnel to train them how to compile digital aw. We often get scans that are good quality scans, but are often given crazy long names, for example: john on the horse riding over the sand dunes in a pink hat! Our system is limited to 13 characters and this causes immense problems, not to mention artworkers and designers who claim to collect for output, only to find half the images are missing. And doesn't it drive you mad when someone sets up an A4 off centre on an A3 with tick marks etc, then saves it as an eps or a pdf expecting the poor printer to get it bang on centre for producing brochures etc. Yes, we definately need some more training courses here in the uk...

I think that it is best to have apprenticeships at work. It's much better really than having training courses that only teach the theories and not the applications.

 

[deano419]

PrePress Youngster Interested Relocating

PrePress Youngster Interested Relocating

I am 25 years old. I got into the industry luckily 5 years ago after the whole college thing fell through. I love everything about my job. Right now Im the only one in our shop running the pre press (2 Katana 5055) and do a lot of the processing of files as well. In the back we have a 2 high 4 color web press. My boss is also looking to start an online "drop box" for some of our school papers to get us their files. With my eval coming up in Feb. I dont think they will increase my pay enough for me to stay on. So I was wondering where I go from here? I have a basic knowledge of the industry and am an open book as far as learning more. Any ideas?