Learn to Dream
Vital statistics
Location East London
Inspection host Seymour Reeves, director
Size The 22 staff are based in a 460m2 facility
Established 2001 with the aim of offering a "slightly different approach to large-format graphics and to become a problem-solver for clients with challenging or unconventional needs", according to Reeves
Products Photographic reproduction on materials including textured art paper, stretched canvas and photographic paper, clear film finishes and substrates for wall displays for short-term exhibitions and events
Kit A range of Epson, HP, Canon and Mimaki machines
Key dates 2004 The Guardian gets the full-colour treatment with Learn to Dream artwork for its HQ in London 2012 Produces one of the biggest window displays for Harrods, spread over 16 sheets of glass 2013 Wins best twinning gong at the PrintIT! Awards; the company adorns the Rolls-Royce marketing suite with wall art
Inspection focus Successful implementation of twinning programme as part of the PrintIT! schools-into-industry scheme
The challenge…
Learn to Dream went back to school recently. Had the company decided it had gaps in professional learning to fill? No. Instead the personalised art specialist was responding, as many others are starting to do, to a difficulty that has confronted the print industry for some years now.
The challenge is to encourage young people into the printing industry in an ever-more digitally-oriented world. Failure to do so could be disastrous as all industries need a constant influx of fresh new talent and ideas to keep them progressing.
And so Seymour Reeves, director of the east London-based company, decided to take the message of how exciting a career in print could be to the classroom. This was in the form of a PrintIT! ‘twinning’ initiative, which links schools with local companies to give students a taste of what this industry can offer through talks, site visits and work experience.
This initiative is the latest in a series the company has undertaken aimed at improving the lives of young people; it has previously helped to finance a music academy in north London and backed a basketball club in Enfield.
But the company was keen to give more "structure" to its involvement and put this on a formal footing. The team was keen to promote the printing industry as truly creative, tempting artistic young talent to consider a possible career in print.
So Learn to Dream contacted PrintIT!, which operates one of the UK’s leading schools-into-industry programmes. To date the organisation has coaxed 140,000 students from more than 2,000 schools into print arenas just like Learn to Dream’s since it was launched eight years ago.
Learn to Dream insists the terrific images it processes everyday are not the sole domain of big-name photographers such as Gered Mankowitz and Terry O’Neill, both of whom in the past have worked with the company. "Everyone," it says, "owns great images". And school kids can be taught to create them.
The method…
But selling the profession to young people and then setting up the right the conditions for them to take the most away from their work-experience stints was not easy, especially in a dynamic, deadline-driven and compact workplace.
Learn to Dream was put on to the twinning programme by the BPIF, says office manager Jane Edwards. It was twinned with Newstead Wood School in Orpington, Kent, and Reeves and Edwards worked closely with the school’s head of design technology, Frances Shilling, in the first year of the partnership.
Before the placements came preparatory work, which was one of the biggest challenges. "It had to be as methodical as the tightest client brief," recalls Reeves, who arranged school visits to give a taster of the print career through Q&A sessions and group workshops.
"We wanted to give the students a sense of a typical day in the life at the business, to give them an idea of what we do. Because of the varied nature of the job, it can be tricky to hit the right balance of detail."
From this, Reeves and Edwards compiled a to-do list of the kinds of tasks work experience students could be expected to undertake.
This in fact proved harder than dealing with the security and health-and-safety checks for working with children. Reeves insists the background checks are not overly bureaucratic; any printer that trains staff should meet most requirements without additional and endless form-filling, and so this should not deter would-be twinners from entering the educational fray.
But drawing up what amounted to a mini curriculum was not easy. Reeves’ team had to balance practical work with learning opportunities, and throw into the mix a bit of excitement and real-world rewards for the students to work towards.
Edwards says: "We agreed to arrange site visits for a class of students and also work placements. It was amazing how many people were interested, but we finally chose
three students." Two of these joined Learn to Dream for a week in March, while one did a two-week placement in July.
Getting the tempo right on the individual projects required careful consideration. Each student acted as both client and producer and saw their project through every stage of production, from concept to completion, explains Reeves.
"We gave students the time and space to work around their project and feel their way in the workplace; for many of them, if not all, this was their first experience of a working environment.
"To get the balance right, they have their own desk and materials and enough to do, but the work needs to be spread evenly and have meaning and not be just something to keep them occupied.
"On the other hand it’s no good starting off at 100 miles an hour with big ambitions. If it’s too much to take in, the students are likely to peter out midway through a stint."
Attitude is everything, adds Reeves. And in saying this he is not in fact cautioning the students under his watchful eye.
"If printers see this as just an extra pair of hands, they have not understood this particular brief. This is about forming skills and helping young people develop their creativity as well as technical skills. The last thing you want is an intern in the corner stuffing envelopes, which would be a sorry end to a noble cause."
The result…
Reeves insists it is not only the schoolchildren who get something out of the twinning programme. Having students roaming around the company gave Learn to Dream added creative buzz.
"Twinning keeps you in contact with the creativity of students, which is where the industry will have to look to retain skills. So it’s important to get a perspective of what they are learning and how their creativity is being nurtured. It is great for us to have something about our business that feels like an academy."
Of the potential benefits to the company as well as schoolchildren, Reeves adds: "It also helps companies improve their own skills at dealing with people."
And there is further good reason for Learn to Dream to stay on the programme. Earlier this year the company took a trip to the eighth PrintIT! Awards ceremony at the North Print & Pack show in Harrogate. Dozens of shortlisted schoolchildren attended to see who had been honoured in the annual schools scheme. Learn to Dream won the Best Twinner award, a real boost to the company’s reputation within the industry and beyond.
Unsurprisingly then, Learn to Dream is keen to make this sort of initiative a regular fixture. Reeves and Edwards intend to continue the relationship with Newstead but, with this experience successfully under their belts, feel confident enough now to take a similar scheme to local schools in east London.
"We intend to design a competition with local schools and work placements, but this would be our own initiative," says Edwards. "We feel that this has shown us that, with the right structure in place, it’s a great idea to encourage more young people to come and experience work within print, whether through PrintIT! or another scheme."
Edwards adds: "We are keen to promote the printing industry in a dynamic and forward-thinking way, and the students came to realise it is more than just business cards and flyers.
"Many of the students are studying graphic design, so they could relate our business with this form of creativity. We asked the students to produce a logo and their creativity was so refreshing."
Reeves insists offering work experience through twinning and other initiatives is crucial, not just for helping to strengthen the profession’s skills-base and for keeping in touch with future creative talents. Its importance stretches into the realm of corporate social responsibility.
"It would make more sense to make offering work experience compulsory rather than jury service, for example," reckons Reeves. "Why shouldn’t people who have got on in life tell others about their journey and the decisions they have had to make in life to get where they are?"
Why indeed, when it seems the benefits to the company, and indeed the industry at large, can be as strong as for the students.
DO IT YOURSELF
Following suit
A major element of the PrintIT! organisation is the twinning scheme that it runs, which involves a local printer, paper merchant or related company working with schoolchildren. Printers and teachers arrange onsite visits, with PrintIT! matching print companies with nearby schools. The extent of input from the twinner can be determined by mutual agreement and can involve a school visit or guidance with competition work as well as work experience. Twinning companies have access to downloads on different aspects of the initiative from the PrintIT! website, www.printit.org.uk
Potential pitfalls
"The wrong mindset: If printers see this as just an extra pair of hands, they have not understood this particular brief. This is about forming skills and helping young people develop their creativity as well as technical skills."
Top tips for success
- Set students realistic targets and give them something tangible to take away with them at the end of their work experience.
- Treat students as adults and equals, not as interns or dogsbodies, and give them their own desk and real work to do.
- Preparation is a must to ensure tasks are realistic and can be successfully undertaken in the available timeframe.
- Encourage students to see the wider social and economic context of print such as the important role print plays in our lives.
Reeves’ top tip
"Give students an honest picture of the career and try to make sure some of what you teach them can be used in their creative work at school or balanced with the textbook stuff they learn. This will strengthen the professional context of both work and academic studies."
