Content area
Full Text
If places cannot be filled, colleges will have to adopt a new approach to training the recruits the industry desperately needs By Rod Hayes
The London College of Printing is coming under increasing scrutiny as it fights to deliver a service that is both relevant and cost-effective.
Its deputy dean Barrie Linford is under no illusions that he has a fight on his hands. He says: "The challenges are considerable, particularly on getting a balance between the cost of providing the service and the number of students who take up a course. We recognise that the industry is changing and in some areas we have to be more proactive. This can mean going out to provide on the job training at an individual level, rather than forcing students to come to us."
Allocation of resources
Allocation of resources is at the nub of the problem of how to provide cost effective training for the printing industry, which is desperate for new blood to secure its future. While there is still a considerable demand for training of a traditional kind it is coming from overseas fee-paying students. Conventional apprenticeships with day or monthly release are now virtually non-existent in the UK.
Mr Linford says: "On the job training is only one of the elements involved in providing learning opportunities. We view that as only one of many ways of dealing with the problems...