Bruce Kenworthy of Rhino Printing recently spoke to members of the Alberta Graphics Arts Industry Network about the WorldSkills Calgary printing competition. Marvin Calderon, a journalism student at SAIT, reports on the meeting and why Kenworthy feels WorldSkills had such a positive impact on the industry. The October issue of PrintAction magazine includes a feature story written by Simon Beauchamp about his experiences at WorldSkills.
By Marvin Calderon
The past year of economic doom and gloom has many in printing worried about the security of their careers, but some are optimistic about the new wave of challenges and opportunities facing the industry. With a rising generation of professionals who are adaptable, resourceful and skillful, the sector is making a strong move forward in imprinting a positive outlook for the future of printing.
On Thursday September 24, 2009, members of the Alberta Graphics Arts Industry Network (aGAIN) heard from Bruce Kenworthy of Rhino Printing Solutions how the future of the print industry in Canada was in good hands.
“Printing is going to be around for a long time,” said Kenworthy. “It’s sustainable, it’s renewable and we’re damn lucky to do what we do.”
Kenworthy was a guest speaker inside the historic Lougheed House in Calgary, Alberta, and was invited by aGAIN to share his take on the recent WorldSkills Calgary 2009 event in which he was a workshop supervisor for the offset printing competition, a volunteer position he was offered last minute. He told the audience of 26 people – compromised of industry leaders, educators and students – how WorldSkills had a positive impact on the industry.
The event, held over the first week of September, showcased the talent of hundreds of international competitors in their respective trades to approximately 151,000 visitors and revealed the versatility of the competitors.
He explained competitors in the printing competition were scored on five tasks: Printing with Sheetfed Offset Training Simulators (SHOTS) from Sinapse Print Simulators; print job (CMYK and one mixed colour) on Heidelberg SM-52 press; cutting of products; digital printing; and density measurements.
“This was the first time in the short history of offset printing in WorldSkills that we used print simulators,” he said – the event has only been in the competition for three years.
He recounted how some competitors found it difficult to work the simulators because they had no previous experience using them. Canadian bronze-medalist Simon Beauchamp had some experience on such systems, he said, and skillfully adapted to the unforeseen situation. As a result, he received a perfect score in the task.
Development and training
Willem Sijpheer, academic chair for the Journalism and Digital Graphics Communication (DGC) programs at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Polytechnic, reinforces that it is absolutely vital for new workers in the printing industry to have access to the training needed to manage evolving products and services.
For this reason, according to Sijpheer, SAIT acquired a new Heidelberg press to use in instructing its future students. He explains that Heidelberg has been very supportive in helping the DGC program acquire up-to-date technologies because they understand that future SAIT grads might become major decision makers in the future.
“The new press will give SAIT that recognition for many years to come in the printing and graphic arts industry,” says Sijpheer, “and will ensure SAIT graduates are well prepared for many employment opportunities.”
According to Kevin Henderson, a WorldSkills ambassador, many former industry workers who attended the event were surprised by the advancement of technology in the industry. These were people who came out of school over 20 years ago, he said, and sought out jobs in the oil industry because that was were the money was.
“But they still had an anchor to the print industry to come back and see what technology is doing to the industry, and anyone I talked with had their eyes opened that it’s certainly changed.”
Emerging youth in printing
aGAIN members also heard from Kenworthy about the other competitors’ training in their home countries, and the remarkable skill level of these young industry workers. One competitor stood out from the rest with his incredibly trained eyes, said Kenworthy.
When it came to mixing the ink in their second task, the competitor from Japan “just looked at the colour in his Pantone book and never used anything else after that,” he said.
“He mixed everything by eye.”
He said his colour was one of the closest matches of all the colour tests.
Kenworthy said, above everything, he’s learned that “after seeing the quality of the competitors from around the world, there’s good printers all throughout this world and the industry is in good hands.
“Not only here in Canada, from what I saw from what we were doing, but [also] around the world.”
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