Growing the Imaging Industry through Apprenticeships

Some of the largest MFP vendors gathered together at an EMEA session entitled “Channeling Talent into the Document Imaging Industry through Apprenticeships” to tackle common issues facing their industry such as a lack of standards and skills amongst young people entering the market and available learning and accreditation paths.

Clive Allen from Sharp Electronics pontificated on the reasons that young individuals don’t want to step in to the document and imaging industry and how apprenticeships and formal learning paths can help. Sharp has been pro-active with learning and certification for its internal workforce and wants to encourage its partners to do the same and adopt certification to measure standards. The entire panel (Ricoh, Sharp, Xerox, Kyocera and Pearson) all agreed for the need to offer relevant training and formal standards.

Paul Routley from Xerox, Ian Allen from Kyocera Mita, Tony Hay from Ricoh UK and Clive Allen all came through an apprenticeship program and understand the skills needed and lack of training offered today. Apprenticeships are widely used today in various industries, and the print and document imaging industry is looking to offer this, utilizing the CompTIA PDI+ certification through working with Nick Hnatiuk at Pearson Work based learning.

There was a generally positive reaction from the multi-brand reseller partners in the audience and acceptance that an apprenticeship program, including the CompTIA PDI+ certification, can add value to existing personnel and help screen and train new hires. Hay commented on the ever changing skills needed by an engineer and using formal certifications to validate this knowledge. The other panelists all commented that the ideal outcome will be to have a recognized standard for the entire industry to use and adopt. Hnatiuk will continue to engage these brands and formalize the apprenticeship program to suit both the manufacturers and independent resellers.