Michael Schulz, director, SOS Print and Media told Australian Printer “A few years ago we offered this opportunity to several of our digital operators and five took up the opportunity and completed a Cert III – Printing & Graphic Arts (Instant Print). These same five are now continuing their education with apprenticeships to become printers by trade.”

Schulz says, “They all run print and finishing equipment, most of them are cross-trained in toner and inkjet devices and operate colour and black only engines.”

SOS Print and Media has 124 full time staff, Schulz says, “We welcome this opportunity to help our staff to acquire formal education. SOS has been employing digital print operators since the 1980s. There has always been a big difference between the offset printers, who had gone through an apprenticeship, received formal training and became tradesmen on the one side and digital operators, who had to learn on the job, because there were hardly any recognised courses on the other side. With the rise of importance of digital print and the rapidly changing technologies used, this educational gap became even more obvious and so did the need for recognition of knowledge acquired on the job.”

“This TAFE initiative targets the appreciation of this existing knowledge. It is good for the operators and therefore it is good for us”, Schulz concludes.

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