Konica Minolta South Africa has embarked on a partnership with print industry representative body Printing SA and its regional councils. The partnership is likely to yield mutual benefits, with graduates of the Printing SA training programmes more likely to find employment, and Konica Minolta South Africa gaining young staff who have been trained in current printing industry techniques, including digital printing technology, colour profiling and substrate character handling.
‘For some time now, Konica Minolta South Africa has been interested in the Printing SA development programme,’ said Edmund Jacobs, commercial production print manager for Konica Minolta South Africa, a division of Bidvest Office and Print. ‘We wanted to get more involved in developing the next generation of print professionals, and this partnership is the perfect way to do that.’
The partnership will see Konica Minolta South Africa looking to select graduates from the Printing SA training programme and placing them in in-house Konica Minolta technical learnerships. At the end of the process, students will graduate with a strong background in the fundamentals of printing, making them great assets to Konica Minolta South Africa, and the print industry at large.
The new relationship will be developed further by aligning initiatives between the two organisations to ensure that young people emerge from their programmes optimally equipped with industry knowledge, and can grow their skills as technology changes.
‘This partnership is a great opportunity to further grow the wealth of knowledge that our two entities have built up,’ said Jacobs. ‘Printing SA has a deep history of training print professionals and building relationships with print industry leaders, while Konica Minolta South Africa has deep knowledge in the digital printing space.’
Jacobs noted that the demand for large print runs was dropping, but that the industry was seeing a concomitant increase in smaller-volume runs, which meant that versatile, digital printing applications would play an ever more pivotal role in the market, and digital skills were becoming indispensable.
He said that both organisations espoused values such as professionalism, integrity, honest and open dealings, fairness, providing value for money, sustainability and accountability. ‘These are values that we find crucial in our organisation,’ he said. ‘The Printing SA partnership will ensure that these values are instilled early in each student’s journey, and become part of our shared industry heritage.’
KONICA MINOLTA SOUTH AFRICA (+27 11) 661 9000 http://www.kmsa.com
