Ideally education and training should be a lifelong process, but in one's work it can sometimes be hard to prioritise. The obvious difficulty is with the motivation and the cost, but there is also the small matter of productivity: while I'm busy learning Swedish, I'm not running the business. Nor am I keeping work coming through the door; nor am I considering long-term business development or investment planning. Putting together in-house training workshops and working with outsiders is as distracting as learning Swedish (although a lot more useful), but it at least brings direct benefit to the shop floor.

There is also the matter of value for money. Where should a sign and display producer turn for decent training? Obviously if it is for digital printers and workflow software, the equipment supplier should provide training, either as part of the sale of the machines or as a separate proposition. Suppliers of course have a vested interest in providing decent training to customers. For suppliers it's about resource deployment, because well-trained customers are less of a support burden. This makes sense because the more one knows about how a machine or software system works, the less need there is to get external support.

Climbing the ladder of success requires a constant effort to learn new stuff. It is never-ending but it's ultimately worthwhile, even if you think you won't make it

The alternative is to rely on industry associations or on companies who offer professional training services of which there is an abundance. However this abundance doesn't extend very far into pre-press and print media production. This type of education is best had from graphic arts consultants who specialise in colour management or workflows, such as Mellow Colour or the Missing Horse Consultancy in the UK. The latter is a member of the international KEE Network, a world-wide collection of print industry consultants specialised in colour and conformance to ISO standards. There is no quality assurance concern with any member of the KEE network, and printers can be very sure they will get value for money.

Making sure that you and your colleagues get the training programme best suited to your needs requires preparation and time, but if you are willing to put this in, good training will benefit the business as well as the team.