New technology such as that showcased at PRINT 17 drives change in what we do and how we do it. It also requires employees to learn new skills. To meet new workforce skill needs, Idealliance (Booth 2067) has expanded its training and certification offerings.
“We’ve taken our courses into areas well beyond process and color management, adding instruction in mailing, HR, and sales skills,” says Tim
Baechle, Idealliance VP of Global Print Technologies & Workflows. “We’re also revising our color management courses to align them with new industry processes and applications and using ‘blended learning’—in-person classroom plus online instruction—to provide them in ways that work best for companies’ resources and schedules.”
This year, Idealliance has added five new courses:
- Brand Q, designed for the packaging market, is a color management program that helps brand owners, print buyers, and PSPs maintain brand integrity and color specifications for
applications across every medium and print process. Learn more at the seminar: “Brand Q: The New Recipe for Packaging (R34),” 11 am on September 13 in Room S105a. - SalesPro Fundamentals teaches salespeople and “selling owners” a process for growing and improving sales activity. The three-month program includes 12 weekly interactive video tutorials and online lessons, two one-on-one coaching phone calls with the instructor, online tools for tracking daily goals/results, and monthly “meet-up” calls with a small group of industry sales peers.
- The SalesPro: Digital Print Training & Certification online course teaches how to sell digital print to new customers while delivering solutions for an existing customer base. Participants learn how to position digital properly and sell it at their price while building annuities of repeat orders.
- Introduced this summer, the HirePro online course covers recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new employees with a step-by-step formula. It includes video learning along with hiring-related forms and guidelines.
- The MailPro Certification Program provides a complete understanding of the postal-facing aspects of mailing. In its first six months, it has certified more than 500 people through its 11+ hours of interactive video tutorials.
Media production
“Idealliance is the leading certifier of skills required for media production” says Baechle, “and we’re extending certification opportunities by adding more online courses and translating courses into people’s native tongue, because learning is best done in your primary language and we serve a global industry.” Idealliance’s color and process management courses include:
- G7 Expert and Professional, hands-on learning in color management, process, and quality control for proofing and printing using G7 methodology; and G7 Process Control Workflow, an in-person course on standardizing processes and managing color workflow from creative through print output.
- ColorPro online courses covering color theory and management for premedia, prepress, digital or traditional offset pressroom, and for ensuring output meets brand objectives.
- Integrated Media Workflow Professional, an online course on transitioning from a dedicated print workflow to one enabing production, publishing, and delivery of content across multiple media.
Courses to be introduced in coming weeks include G7 Apprentice, an introduction to color management for those with limited knowledge of print production or G7 methodology, and a course in “green” printing.