According to their design teacher Sam Nanor, the students benefitted greatly from the opportunity to learn about and use modern print equipment, including Velmex's range of Canon LFPs.

"It was a great opportunity for our students to see commercial printing processes in progress," he said. "We do a lot of graphic design here at Bacon's College but we output everything on laser printers – many of our students haven't known or seen any other type of printer."

The day was split into two halves, with the students first learning how LFP technology works from Velmex service engineer Mike Hackett, before being given the opportunity to print their own posters under the guidance of technical engineer Adam Keeley.

Managing director Mike Keeley said: "We showed the students the printers and how the technology works. They saw all the prints coming out and learned about how to use the software, how to edit photos and how to print their photos. In the second half of the day they started printing out posters they'd designed at school."

The visit was organised to strengthen the relationship initially established through the PrintIT! twinning programme. "It's good for students to see what they can do in the working world with the skills we are helping them develop," said Nanor.

"It encourages them to be interested in the print industry and reinforces the importance of their education. Many of the students are very interested in print and the visit opened their eyes to the career opportunities out there, opportunities that they didn’t know about before going on the visit."

Velmex recently hailed the success of its Big Print Plan large-format rental scheme, which was launched in response to problems obtaining equipment finance.