Sustainable innovation

"Almost all content is born and modified in electronic form. Some of it never sees the surface of paper. This does not mean there will be no content on paper, it means we have a choice.” (Frank Romano, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York State).

The “printing industry” has always been part of the communication and information industry. Over the last 30 years the whole industry and the market within which it operates has gone through a technical and consumer revolution. From a manufacturing industry dominated by capital-intensive production and output based, single channel companies, a change to full service communication and information companies (multi channel companies) is now needed. The customer demands a full-service provision from the companies and companies have to respond to this in order to ensure their business is sustainable.

There is an urgent need for companies to enter in this period of change; as traditional companies that do not change are going out of business rapidly and to halt that situation they will have to respond to the market The need for change throughout the Creative sector has been researched in the sector over a period of time; several reports underline the urgency. Intergraf, the European employer’s association published "Print Media in times of change, a key contributor to EU 2020"; Intergraf, Uni Europe Graphical (European trade Unions) and EGIN (European platform for educational cooperation) published “Future Skills in the Graphical Industry, identifying and promoting best practices in Europe, 2014.

Company profiles 2025

To support and encourage the changes the project will develop a series of profiles of companies at different stages along the path of development from single-channel production to multi-channel service companies. The profiles will be implemented in an e-tool which will enable companies to self assess where they sit along that path and identify the gaps which, when addressed, will smooth their journey. The strategies to assist companies to move long the path will also be identified and proposed to companies for them to implement or to use trusted advisors to assist. A series of training modules relating to entrepreneurial competences will be produced in order to fill the gap of missing competences: recognising and analysing the changes, planning to overcome them and follow them through step by step in line with strategic plans. Cross channel thinking and conceptual thinking which have to be
combined with well founded technical skills are paramount. In addition the usual soft management skills need to be addressed in the context of the new business model.

The project will initially focus on SME's that are innovative and change oriented so that a “pull through” effect may be started on the whole industry. The traditional industry and also the new Creative industry is SME dominated with few companies employing more than 500 employees. The European industry is large and comprises 121 000 companies and employs around 714 000 people with a turnover of about € 88 billion, but also consists mainly of small enterprises with more than 90% of the companies employing less than 20 employees (Intergraf). The scope and size of the companies has as consequence that there is very little time and resources for external support. The project responds to this with specific support as described in the first paragraphs, added with on site, online support by external consultants.

Strong European scope

The project has a strong European scope, with a variety of partners (see section on partner choice). There are very good reasons for this kind of partnership. First of all the EU approach and dimension is needed to obtain the widest possible input of all current scenarios, the best views as to the way forward and guarantee the sustainability of the outcomes and a wide possibility to have them applied. Secondly we need the variation of partners: initial VET, Higher VET, Academies, R&D companies / consultancy and IT partners.

The project partners firmly believe that the area of VET education related to this kind of entrepreneurial competencies need close cooperation between organisations operating in the EQF levels 4-5and 6. The consortium is convinced the industry needs a new level of educational courses, modules without a break between initial and higher educational pathways so that
entrepreneurial competencies can be introduced at a time appropriate to the individual learner.

The solutions provided in this project are sector or industry specific and the project partner’s experience is that this industry more readily embraces solutions written, developed and delivered in its own language and context. This approach reflects the variety of companies in the Creative industry, and their background in the very specific market in which customers demand this kind of approach.