With the rise and rise of the internet and millions and millions of PCs and laptops with connected home printers, many people think that the printing industry, if not dead, is certainly on the way to extinction.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Walk down any main street, look around your home, visit a supermarket or department store, or just open your wallet or purse and pull out a ten pound bill. Print is everywhere. In fact, without a printing industry, life as we know it would be nearly impossible.
Printing in a sense is the same as the Internet: it conveys information. The Internet does this electronically and print does the same “hard”. But both achieve the same purpose of transmitting information.
Therefore, printed jobs will not disappear anytime soon. There will always be great career prospects for those looking to get in print.
While it has not been unheard of for printing companies to fail, it is little different from any other industry in that regard. Walk into any printing factory and those big machines will be making noise all day, every day. In fact, sometimes there is only a few minutes of silence when the current run has finished until the new job loads and the noise resumes.
For those who wish to print, there are several options. There are two universities dedicated only to the printing industry and many more, offering courses in graphic design and media as part of their curriculum.
Many printing companies then hire apprentices or offer internships where you can “earn while you learn.” This used to be a prerogative of the young, but today there is no age limit. You can change careers to, say, 40 and still find a company willing to train you, which indicates how vibrant the modern printing industry is.
There are also courses that give you basic knowledge and training in key skills like numeracy, literacy, problem solving, and computer science. Print Technical Certificates are courses that offer training in print management, estimation, printing, and finishing.
Print finishing is the part of the industry that covers everything that can be done to produce a finished product after the ink has been applied to the paper. There are many companies that specialize solely in print finishing and offer specific training in print finishing jobs.
Therefore, the print finish may include laminating, mounting, image transfer, trimming, coating, creating point-of-sale display models, or, for example, a ten foot tall “Shrek” cardboard for display in the local cinema auditorium.
And printing doesn’t just involve putting ink on paper. Printing continues with aluminum cans, bottle caps, plastic bags, lipstick holders, cardboard, wood, and sheet metal – the list is endless. In fact, if you can think about it, it’s pretty safe to say that someone somewhere has printed it.
So to conclude, it’s safe to say that if you are considering a career in the printing industry, you will have a job for life. Not only that, but it is a job that can pay very well.