Since its inception in year 2000 Heidelberg's Print Media Academy (PMA) has been steadily growing and now it has several branches throughout the world. In order to have a better insight on PMA and its activities we spoke to Bernd Schopp, head of PMA who recently visited Iran to participate in a training seminar, organized jointly by PMA and Iran Rotative, Heidelberg's agent in Iran. Bernd Schopp took over the management of PMA in Heidelberg on 1 August 2002. As manager of the PMA he had tried to further globalize the PMA and at the same time in expanding its industry-specific training portfolio.
Here are the excerpts of the interview:
The graphic arts industry is made up of many complex and different skills, know how and disciplines such as IT, engineering, color science and so on, so when we talk about training in printing industry what do we exactly refer to?
Working in the print industry means working in a rapid changing environment. Job’s are changing. Software is getting more and more important. Training mainly means keeping with the technology change. On the other hand, there is the management know how. Over 80 percent of the print houses in the entire industry have less than 20 employees. So most of the print houses are small and medium sized and often the owners also work on the equipment. Due to competition within the industry, margins are getting lower for printers in many countries. So management have to keep up with the latest know how to run the print shop. They need to know, how to plan ahead, say for a five-year period and plan how to get there.
You have PMA branches in different countries around the globe including one in Egypt, I believe the main investment comes from your representatives, what is the process of offering PMA branding to a certain country?
To get the Heidelberg PMA branding, we have a defined certification process. One point of the process is that the trainers have to be certified by us. They have to have the latest knowledge, methodical and practical skills and the training documentation should be state-of-the-art. Also the training facility should be modern and well equipped. There is a check list covering all different points. If all of this is completed only then certification and the branding can be done. The decision to have a link-up with PMA lies with the local market. The Middle East is a growing area and there’s a high demand for training. It is very important to support our customers here. So we started in year 2000 in Egypt with the PMA and are offering programs for the Middle East region.
People are really looking forward for education programs. I had a meeting with members of the Printers’ Union here in Iran to speak about training, education and the support of the PMA.
You have one week training courses, how can these programs help our printers, one week seems to be a very short time for serious training?
Programs such as ESTRO which we have done in Mexico was a huge success and could also be supportive here. The program consists of two parts: a one week intensive training and a period of 4 months constant audits in the print shop. Based on this program, we have supported printing houses and enhanced their productivity and quality. A lot of information was passed out during the one week training. The important thing is a constant audit process which will support not only the owner, but also the printer who can apply the new knowledge in day to day business. We want to make sure that the things which they learned at the course are really applied at the print shop. The audit process is an excellent tool for that.
How many people from Middle East have attended your classes?
Many people from Middle East are investing in their know- how, so we have had lot of participants from this region. We have constant participation at our summer and winter universities from UAE, KSA and others in this region. We also held a winter university in Dubai and most people who attended came from this region. Many participated also in our product training courses.
The fee for the courses held in PMA Germany is of course higher than when we have localized training. Therefore, we also support local training courses in the language of the country. That is also one of the ideas behind the PMA network to provide localized market related offerings.
How do you interact with other training institutions including universities that offer postgraduate education in printing?
For schools and universities we are offering special training courses and state of the art training materials to be used during the lessons. Per year we have around 2000 students with their teachers in PMA, Heidelberg coming to learn. In addition to getting the latest information, they have the opportunity to see latest equipment in production and to see the assembling of printing machines. There is a high demand and we receive a good feedback. For teachers and professors we offer special seminars on latest technology. As latest highlight we have also a tie-up with University of the Arts London (London College of Communication) for a postgraduate degree.
How do you design your programs?
Before designing our programs, we speak a lot with our customers. We also have counseling market surveys and we are in touch with universities. Based on this input we decide each half year, as to what will be covered over the next half year period. If a company, association or any other group of customers needs a customized training on any particular topic, we offer that as well.
In our product training, we focus on offset and the entire workflow from prepress to postpress. Topics such as PDF or JDF workflow are general and people in the industry want to know more about these. We mainly offer short term courses from one day to one week. We look at the duration of the courses from customers’ point of view as to what makes sense. For the summer/winter university, people come from different international countries so a week’s duration is what suits them. Most of the programs that we offer for owners are of one or two days.
As the market changes rapidly, more and more people realize that they have to keep up with the speed. Training is part of the necessity to make business running. Innovative companies are willing to invest also in management training courses. Training does help people to know more about the industry and to enhance their position within it. By sharing experience with other participants in the lessons, new ideas for the own business are created. This interaction of the participants is one main element in the course design.
Do you also offer training for packaging?
In packaging, we offer various training in prepress, printing, die-cutting, folding, gluing etc. for the operator level. For the print shop management we offer seminars covering business related topics like sales, marketing, human resources management and a lot more.
Do you think it is a good idea that major players in graphic arts such as Heidelberg, Man Roland, KBA and others adopt a single and unified approach towards training?
There is such cooperation, it is called Printpromotion and offers seminars at the operator and management level. The channel partners are working together there.
What is the most challenging aspect of training in graphic arts?
The speed of change in our industry is very high. Challenging is bringing about the mind change and the cultural change to keep up with the speed. Innovation is only possible with competent staff.
The printing industry is moving towards full integration between different stages of printing, if that happens then you would probably have to change the three legged horse outside PMA building in Heidelberg. As far as I understood the three legs represent prepress, press and postpress?
That’s the good thing with art. There are various ways of interpretation. I think the philosophy behind the statue is not prepress, press and postpress. It is a very dynamic statue and it represents the inherent dynamism in our industry.
