Linney Group's Valuable Support For PrintIT!

When Miles Linney, managing director of the Linney Group, received a request from Picon to help with year two of its PrintIT! initiative he was delighted at the chance to be involved.

When Miles Linney, managing director of the Linney Group, received a request from Picon to help with year two of its PrintIT! initiative he was delighted at the chance to be involved.

The Nottingham (UK) printer has worked closely with nearby schools and colleges for several years and operates an 'industry experience' scheme that is achieving on a local scale what PrintIT! is designed to do nationally, said the organisation.

Miles Linney said: "We take up to 15 youngsters a year for periods of either one or two weeks, but they have to apply to us in writing and visit our factory for an interview.

We provide them with detailed feedback on the application letter and the interview meeting and the teachers we work with report that this is very helpful and a good learning process.

Before students begin we agree a specific project that they will be involved in and who will be their mentor during their stay.

This is invariably someone who is working on the same project." He added: "On their first day, students have a set introduction to a range of topics, such as health and safety, fire procedure and communication, for instance, which would be relevant in most factories.

They then become involved in their nominated project and this will normally encompass design, marketing and production activities.

We often have students coming back to work here during summer holidays and this includes some who are on holiday from university.

We also keep in touch when they get back to school by emailing them our company bulletins and sending them our quarterly newsletter." The Linney Group's involvement with the PrintIT! initiative included making up by hand 25,000 student workbooks and 1,000 teachers' handbooks and then compiling teachers' packs, made up of the workbooks and handbooks plus the 'print companion' CD-Rom (donated by Belmont Press) which gives a virtual tour of a typical printing house.

Packs going to schools entering for the first time also included the Printdynamics CD provided by Polestar.

Martyn Elmy, chairman of PrintIT, said: "We're extremely grateful to the Linney Group for its help in putting together all of the various elements of the teachers' packs and then providing such a comprehensive fulfilment service.

We were able to supply the company with a database of how many teachers' packs were needed by individual schools throughout the UK but the Linney Group then had the task of putting all these together and mailing out the varying quantities to the different addresses.

It would have been a significant commercial job so the generous offer by Miles Linney to handle all of this gratuitously was very welcome.".

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