EU project on skills ends with launch of final report at conference

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The EU-funded project on skills identification in the printing industry has come to an end. The report for the project, Future Skills in the Graphical Industry, was presented at a final conference in Berlin on 7th October, attended by over 50 participants, from 16 countries.

The aim of the project was to pinpoint best practices in identifying skills in the printing industry across the EU. The project partners were Intergraf, UNI Europa graphical & packaging, and EGIN, the European Graphic/Media Industry Network.

Over the last year, the project partners distributed a questionnaire in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish and received over 200 responses from companies and industry professionals across Europe. These replies were then compiled into the final report which contains recommendations which are reproducible regardless of the country.

The report was presented at the conference by its author, Rense van der Heide, of the EGIN Network while co-author Mike Hopkins, moderated part of the meeting. Presenting the report, Mr Van Den Heide emphasised that good education is the foundation of a strong economy and traditional structures may not work in a fast changing world. However, existing educational development structures have and will in the future work well when committed to.

The report contains case studies from companies which reflect the stresses and strains in the market at company level. There is also a section on best practices in the industry. In that chapter, the industry survey, the desk research and the case studies, are drawn together to produce answers to the “recognition, analysis and implementation” problem of skills in the industry.

Other speakers at the final conference presented changing skills in companies, sectoral skills organisation, delivery of education, case studies on development and delivery of education, teaching in VET schools multi-channel media companies.

The speakers also represented a wide range of cultural backgrounds coming from Malta, Estonia, the Netherlands and Italy among others. Finally, there was a panel discussion with representatives of Uni Europa Graphical, Intergraf and Egin.

Beatrice Klose, Secretary General of Intergraf stated: “The last decade was an exceptionally difficult one for the printing industry with the shift to digital communication. Therefore it is especially important for the social partners of the graphical industry to cooperate on the issue of skills and education and work together to face the challenges presented to us.”

The final report is available for download in English and will be available in French, German, Spanish and Italian on in the coming months.