Legacy Prep Charter Academy launches new Printing Course

Legacy Preparatory Charter Academy in Mesquite Texas is off to a fast start with their new Xerox Digital Production Printing Pathway Course. The Pathways Course is designed to help build tomorrow’s digital printing workforce by teaching students the skills required in today’s printing companies.

 The school recognized the tremendous growth of digital commercial and industrial printing and added the course for the 2023-2024 school year. Legacy Prep through meticulously designed 21st-century programs, their learning academy equips students with the skills essential for thriving in both academic and real-world settings

The new course curriculum complements Legacy Prep’s existing philosophy of empowering students in grades K-12 to take charge of their education. They accomplish this by preparing them for careers by implementing innovative opportunities using project-based learning and enriching educational programs. Legacy Prep’s focus is on coursework that provides the skills necessary to succeed in and outside the classroom.

The school added the course after a review by Innovation Specialist, Bradi Braley and Senior Director, Josie Eatman. Legacy Prep’s Principal, Dr. Stephanie Edwards, recognizing the opportunity to develop graphic communications skills related to graphic design and printing technology decided to add the course.

Graphic Communications Instructor, Tomas Matic, is teaching the Pathways printing course along with a separate graphic design course. The 50 students enrolled in 4 classes are getting many opportunities for “hands-on” experiences in producing printed projects using a state-of-the-art Xerox press. Mr. Matic brought his previous classroom and graphic design experience to implement the Pathways Course at Legacy Prep. Intellective Solutions, the developer of the course, worked with Mr. Matic through a series of Zoom calls to build his printing skills and gain a comfort level with the lesson plans, PowerPoint screens, samples, and student hands-on exercises provided.

Instructor, Tomas Matic said, “I was thrilled with the support and resources he has received from Xerox and Intellective Solutions. Frank Kanonik of Intellective Solutions is the best printing teacher anyone could have. He helped me ramp up to teach the class with confidence. The materials are excellent. I was able to build on them to introduce fun competitions and activities between students.

Mr. Matic’s efforts and dedication to his students were acknowledged this year by the PIA of MidAmerica when he was awarded the Educator of the Year award at their recent annual banquet.

His class also entered the student print competition and won the competition for researching, designing, and printing a replica of a historical newspaper to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. It was produced on a 12-inch by 18-inch sheet of paper that resembled newsprint and printed on the Xerox digital press. The award-winning entry is proudly displayed in the print classroom.

Mr. Matic explained, “I am immensely flattered by the image of the Educator of the Year award but I would much rather highlight the efforts of Ms. Jessica Sanchez of the Mid America Printing Industries of America (PIA) and my guys from 5th Period Printing & Imaging as well as Drew Grace of Xerox and Frank Kanonik and Joe Rickard of Intellective Solutions. I deeply appreciated the support of Teresa Campbell, Jessica Sanchez of the PIA team, and all my wonderful students who deserve the lion's share of the credit for making this class, indeed this academic year, such a success!

Intellective Solutions Since our founding in 2003, we have delivered, through training and consulting, significant results for digital and inkjet printing organizations, technology companies, and K-12/CTE/vocational schools throughout the world.. Our strategy is to leverage the latest developments in the graphic communications industry to provide time and cost-effective solutions based on our customer’s specific needs.

Joe Rickard 845 753 6156

Five Keys School launches print education at Los Angeles Sheriff's Department

Five Keys School has partnered with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to invest in individuals living on the margins so they can change their lives.

Offenders often exit criminal justice without a clear path or purpose to pursue a sustainable career. The Sheriff’s Department partnering with Five Keys Schools to provide at-risk youth with sustainable job skills for an opportunity with a great future.

Since the Sheriff’s Department had a large implant printing operation, they looked for a workforce development program that was industry-aligned and leveraged current digital imaging software technology. Five Keys turned to Xerox for its Xerox® Digital Career Pathway Program. The curriculum and instructor resources were developed by print education leader Intellective Solutions. Now Five Keys and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is training students in the industry-required skills to work with digital production printing, and helping them find jobs with local businesses.

 Tom Hood, Five Keys principal instructor of the Xerox Pathways course is passionate about providing students with the opportunity to succeed. A fifth-generation printer, Tom knows the satisfaction and career possibilities that employment within the graphic communications industry can give his students.

“Using the Xerox® Digital Career Pathways Program and working with their partner, Intellective Solutions, I paint a canvas of what the industry is about. At first, it’s difficult to convince a student of how high-tech the industry is. Once we take them through examples of how projects are created and produced, it becomes clear to them that they can have a long-term, sustainable career that pays well. Working with the curriculum and resources has been a tremendous help in building our outstanding program.”

Leading Printers Praise GAERF Skill Competencies and Assessments

Printing company owners Tim Boucher and Todd Ventura discussed the value of skill competencies and assessments for employees of printing companies provided by Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF).

GAERF provides Graphic Communications Skills Competencies (GCSC) and Skill Assessments  for the graphic communications industry. The competencies and assessments were written by industry professionals and graphic communications educators to provide measurable or observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors critical to successful job performance in six key content areas

“The ability to evaluate and benchmark high level skills for prepress and print production professionals is essential” says Tim Boucher owner of BSquared Design & Printing. BSquared is a state-of-the-art digital printer that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Boucher feels to compete in his very competitive market he insists that his employees maintain the highest level of technical and professional skills. Supporting high expectations of his time-starved customers is an important ingredient to his company’s success. BSquared is one of the fastest growing printers in the Northeast.

Discussing SkillsUSA assessments, Megan Valdez, Managing Director of BSquared said, “Many pre-press professionals are self-taught or learn through on the job training”. The use of these assessments is a way to identify areas where further training or mentoring is required”.

Recently, one of BSquared customer service account representatives reviewed the results of the Digital File Preparation and Output Assessments and found a potential gap in their knowledge of color management. This allowed the employee to take steps to deeper their skill level in this area by working with more experienced employees and reviewing available training materials.

PRP Companies is a full service commercial printer located in San Luis Obispo, California. The President, Todd Ventura, is a firm believer in the value of putting in place a continuing education program for both sales and production staff.

According to Ventura, “because of the changes in the graphic communications industry, we must provide a systematic educational approach to stay abreast of not only technological changes, but also in what types of products and services our customers are requesting”.

Ventura’s staff has been involved with the review of the updated PrintED GCSC skill competencies and assessments. “As the person responsible for ensuring that PRP companies maintains its competitive edge by hiring and maintaining a skilled workforce, the PrintED skill competencies are exactly what we need”

When asked about the value of the assessments for his company, Ventura answered “We were not aware of the PrintED program prior to agreeing to review the materials. However, we absolutely will use the GCSC skill assessments in two different ways; number one is to give preferential treatment to prospective candidates that possess a PrintED certification and number two, to use the assessments to benchmark current employees to help develop a training continuum based on their needs.”