Twinners
Background
Employees in the printing industry are competing with many other industries to attract bright young people who possess the energy, enthusiasm and IT skills to drive their business to a successful future. Unfortunately for too long, the printing industry has been perceived by young people as old fashioned, dirty and low-tech. As anyone involved in the printing industry knows, this is no longer the case. Our industry is exciting, vibrant, and one of the most technologically advanced in the manufacturing sector.
The aim of PrintIT! Scotland is to inform young people about the real benefits our industry can offer over others and to inspire them to choose a career in printing or graphic arts.
The PrintIT! course was run in more than 570 schools in England last year with nearly 23,000 students taking part.
Twinning
Since its launch in 2005 more than 500 printers have participated in the nationwide PrintIT! Twinning Programme. Print-related companies across the country have twinned with local schools to share their knowledge and experiences, which has been invaluable in bringing the PrintIT! course to life.
Twinning companies are asked to give up a few hours of their time to liaise with the teacher at the twinned school with a view to students taking part in a discussion about the printing industry. Printers are given all necessary background information on the PrintIT! Scotland course in advance and there is also a helpful downloadable PowerPoint presentation Twinner’s Slide Presentation and a Word downloadable document Class Visit Guidance.
We appreciate how difficult it is for many printers to release key personnel, which is why the twinning programme was designed to take only a few hours of the company representative’s time. However we are delighted that in many cases the initial twinning of the school and printer by PrintIT! Scotland hopefully will lead to ongoing relationships with activities such as onsite visits, work experience and careers planning being arranged.
