The Xerox Suite, which opened last Friday at a well-attended event at the centre, features a DocuColor 6060, a Nuvera 120 Copier/Printer and a FreeFlow workflow.

The NPSC is to expand its range of courses on the back of the donation by Xerox, including a new two-year foundation degree in print and digital media production and management.

Peter Taylor, Xerox UK director of graphic arts, said: "This advances the relationship we have with the NPSC. We've been running courses here for 15-20 years, to develop our sales staff."

He said that the suite would be used for demonstrations of Xerox products, and that he hoped that for students the company's name would become "synonymous with digital print".

George Ridgway, chair of governors at Leicester College, said: "We are so pleased to be in this position at a time when training is becoming divorced from the industry. We will no longer be playing catch-up.

"Xerox thinks it's doing better out of it than we are, and we think we're doing better out of it than it is, so it must be a good partnership."

The first intake for the foundation degree will start in September 2005, and the course will be available full-time, part-time or as individual modules.

Uniquely, each student will have a management-level mentor within the print industry to offer help and advice as the students start their careers.

David Baldaro, workflow business manager, and Kevin O'Donnell, DocuColor product manager, also gave presentations about FreeFlow and the applications of digital printing.

Story by Josh Brooks