Page 48 - FINAT Yearbook 2012

KNOWLEDGE: THE KEY TO SUCCESS
FORMALISING AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR THE LABEL INDUSTRY
Mike Fairley looks at the need to improve education and training in the label industry and sets out suggestions for a co-ordinated approach, standardised modules, certification and qualifications.
There can be little doubt that the label industry has expanded and grown over the past 20 years at a faster and faster rate as new label materials, new printing technologies, electronic and digital solutions, advanced control and performance systems, new types of label and decoration methods, new applications – and the steady globalization of the label industry – all take place.
However, education and training to meet all these new demands, applications and markets have not evolved as fast as the industry itself. Currently, there are limited (or no) international education and training schemes or standards for the label industry, poor availability of relevant training modules, or few organised global resources to meet the growth in label industry personnel, their knowledge and skill requirements, or their ongoing development.
Interestingly, this need for education and training does not come from a lack of knowledge in the industry, but more from a lack of any formalised education and training programme or system that label companies can easily adopt, follow, and implement so as to have a global education and training system. Yes, there are organisations and companies developing some relevant education and/or training material – 4Impression, FINAT, VskE, Tarsus, leading industry suppliers, Schreiner Group, European Flexo Association, etc.
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge is that little, if any, of this material is being co- ordinated. It is very much being developed and prepared in a random way to suite specific requirements, companies or markets. Yet almost all the material developed to date has much the same industry requirements in common. The same topics – label substrates, printing processes, diecutting, inks, etc. So, why not try and bring it all together in one pan- European – or even global – label industry education and training system?
Mike Fairley
THE OPPORTUNITY
One of the training modules that has already been developed
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Such a system would enable any label-related company – whether an industry supplier or converter – to follow a series of education and training modules that would formalise and monitor the development of every employee in the industry, wherever they are employed, and in any country. The modules would utilise internal company personnel to pass on knowledge and skills, and monitor and sign off stages of training, so enabling every person entering the industry to have a logbook that records and monitors his or her development and progress. These logbooks would be transferable between companies and sections of the industry, and could follow each employee throughout his or her working life if required.
SETTING THE CURRICULUM
Existing external training resources such as schools and colleges, training organisations, industry training centres, supplier training and technology facilities, conferences, seminars and workshops, can all still be utilised with the logbook scheme, signing off modules as education and training takes place.
FINAT YEARBOOK 2012 |