industry--related--learning

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Reflection of work experience

After looking into the options for what could be classed as work experience/placement, shadowing seemed like a plausible option. Having the familiarly of undergoing placement within my place of education put me at ease, it meant that I was able to focus on the tasks at hand without having the external anxieties that come with new surroundings. For my placement I shadowed a print technician, Laura Bowie, from this experience I was hoping to gain skills and knowledge about equipment and the process of print making.

Bowie provided a safe and comfortable environment for learning, she made it easy to communicate and her friendly attitude made asking questions easy. She was willing to share her wealth of knowledge, having experience in the field of being a print technician and working for an educational establishment. David Major states “The business of universities is, of course, about knowledge and learning. University research centres have always been a key way in which higher education works with industry, public service, and many other areas through knowledge transfer.” (Major, 2016). Bowie done her duty as an employee of an educational establishment and took part in the exchange of knowledge, the vital part being an exchange as Bowie was more than eager to hear from myself and other students. She stated that “you never stop learning, let them teach you something, you might learn something new” (Bowie, 2022) this was confirmed through research into peer learning, David Boud states “In everyday life we continually learn from each other. For most of the things we need in our working and personal lives we find enough information and guidance from friends and colleagues. It is relatively uncommon to take a course, or consult a teacher. We draw upon whatever resources we need wherever we can find them “ (Boud, 2001). This placement was ideal as being interested in this felid of work meant that I was able to see the true experience from inside the job, whilst learning new skills from both peers and my placement provider.

On placement I learned from Bowie that the skills needed to be a good print technician was a competent understanding of print processes, such as etching, mono-printing, lino printing and screen printing etc. Mixed with the knowledge of equipment needed to carry out these processes, a lot of problem-solving skills and persistence. These skills are key as being a print technician is also being maintenance for the equipment. This was proven on my first day when my problem-solving skills were put to the test, fixing one of the roller presses inside the print studio. Bowie brought it to my attention that when equipment is broken, the educational establishment cannot always afford to buy new part, instead it is up to the technician come up with creative ways to ensure the equipment is fixed to a workable and safe standard.

The rest of my work placement days were spent learning print processes, such as listed above, and helping Bowie with her daily work. This comprised of being available for students’ questions and having screens clean and ready for use, among other things. This showed me the flexibility and being able to think in a fast-paced environment were also key elements to being a competent print technician.

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This is my attempt at a creative Cv, I have made sure to include relevant information that may help me towards a career in the arts. Including the name of provider and the environments where placements took place.

I have included my soft and hard skills, as well as contact information and my educational history. I have also included a brief profile, which may be adapted to suit specific job.

I have included a somewhat creative image, showing my fun and personable side, again this may wish to be adapted for specific work environments.

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Writing a Cv

How to write a CV for creative industries | CV-Library

This website provides insight into what you can include in a creative Cv such as a link to your portfolio, expressing your experiences in the field wither that be placement an apprentice or previous employment. including keywords that the employer is looking for and you can even name drop to show your involvement with clients.

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Transferable skills

(PDF) Competence and the Need for Transferable Skills (researchgate.net)

Top 3 transferable skills for creative graduates | UAL (arts.ac.uk)

Transferable skills can be useful across a variety of different employment fields. These papers discuss the usefulness of a work placement in order to gain these skills.

Transferable skills can include but are not limited to, skills in communication, organisation and problem-solving. These papers explore the how employers are more likely to employ someone with these skills as it is important, particularly in the creative industry, to be able to have these personable skills.

Creativity and the ability to adapt is crucial in the creative industry, they can be applied to challenging situations to come up with solutions. communication is key, being able to talk clearly to others will help lesson confusion when completing tasks. it allows for you to effectively reach individuals.

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Experience the world of work | My World of Work

"The best way to understand the industry you're interested in is to experience what it's like to work in it. That includes being in the workplace, speaking to the employees and getting involved in tasks while you're there." 

This website recommends that in order to best get an idea of the field of work you want to enter as a career, taking part in a placement is a great way to figure that out. Being part of the work environment, talking to employees and actually participating in tasks will give you the most accurate understanding of the career you want to enter.

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Soft Skills and Hard Skills

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: Definition and Examples | Indeed.com UK

Soft Skills can be described as but not limited to communication, team work, problem-solving and creativity. These skills can make an individual more empathetic, resourceful and help when it comes to public speaking or disagreements.

Hard Skills refer to technical knowledge and training perhaps learned at a educational establishment or at previous employment. Skills in marketing, design, project management and data analysis. These skills and experiences may be more marketed towards a corporate environment but are not exempt from a creative field of work.

This resource gives great advice on how to incorporate these aspects into a CV and how to make it known you have these skills in an interview. Such as listing previous employment on a CV and mentioning relevant skills that apply to the role you are applying for. In an interview you may be able to elaborate on these skills by demonstrating punctual behaviour, you can mention the skills you have and describe the situations in which you used them.

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Theory reading

workplace learning.pdf

This paper describes the need for individual satisfaction when completing a task, it also goes on to explain how this is transferable skill when in small groups. Peer interaction helps to expand learning, this paper states that "workplaces are a major site for small group learning" the paper explore how sharing uncertainty with peers can lead to more effective, fast-paced decision making. In this case this was able to save life's but could also apply to a company or organisations success in is field.

Exposing yourself to many settings within your industry can help you be your best professional self.

BCS01Makingthemovetopeerlearning.pdf

Peer learning stated by Boud touches on the importance of communicating with family and peers, this can help with enquiries, provide guidance and overall help with your understanding of a situation.

Emerald_JWAM_JWAM587148 17..28

This paper explains the importance of universities being able to create apprenticeships, work placements and to make connections outside of the university environment. This will increase their ability to enrol more students, have a higher success rate of graduate students and create connections with local businesses and organisations.

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The importance of networking

What Is Networking and Why Is It So Important? (betterup.com)

This article describes the importance of networking in all fields of work, it pushes the importance of it being able to excel your career in the direction you want.

Networking can happen once in a work role, at events, peers, your educational facility etc. Networking is interacting with people with intention, whither this is to learn new skills, knowledge or work on your soft skills.

"Here are 4 reasons why networking is important to your career development:

Networking contributes to your social well-being

Networking leads to the exchange of ideas 

Networking helps you meet people at all professional levels

Networking boosts your professional confidence"

It has tips for if your shy, such as finding common interests even just showing your face at an event can be the start of your networking.

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Email Correspondence

During our interactions I tried to stay professional organising dates and confirming the tasks I would under take.

When running late I made sure to tell Laura in advance, in order to not interrupt her tasks that day and remain punctual, in order to be taken serious in the work place and remain responsible.

Laura did say that it may be an option to try and get an alternative placement as she could only offer 4 sessions, this ended up not being the case and I was able to complete my placement with her. Attending workshops and helping out in the studio due to busy periods with night classes. As I was aware she thought that alternative experience may widen my knowledge of the work field I did reach out with no luck. This I feel may have been for the better as I wanted to be within an educational establishment as this is he sector I see myself going into.

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Samples

These are some of the examples that Laura keeps in her folio to show others the abilities the riso has, what range your able to achieve.

Having this available for students to look at creates a visual base to make them aware of the abilities of the equipment. This helps create a easier workshop delivery as the students have a base to start with, they are able to see the capabilities they can achieve with their work.

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Week six of placement

Layout of the day

Time: 12pm-4pm

Afternoon: Riso-print workshop

Laura invited me along to shadow her as she provided a Riso-print workshop for some 4th year illustration students.

This not only provided insight into the working of the Riso printer but also the artistic ways you can use it and how different departments may use it in comparison to my own artwork.

Things I learned:

Text is better in 1 colour, for legibility.

2/3 colours max for an image as it can start to get muddy. You can however overlay different colour to create others.

You should always use an uncoated paper to avoid it sticking to the internal ink drum. You may want to experiment with different colours of paper.

Each ink drum is inserted individually and it is wise to start with the lightest colour first to avoid ink marks on your work.

There are 2 ways to use a Riso-printer:

Analog = creates more unpredictability and colours may appear different, possibly allows for more creative freedom.

You can use photography, sketches, real objects and marks.

Digital File= a more crisp image, easier to visualise the finished product

You are best to do a digital file on illustrator or procreate.

How the Riso works!

Cost of the machine= £1500 new

A drum costs around: £600

Inks cost: £87

This is what the machine in the college costs and to run the machine it is £2 a colour to run for student use as long as you bring your own paper.

Operating

The drum goes in first and you choose the colour from the options presented on the screen. From there you have options to change the contrast even slow down the speed of the drum. its best to allow for a 5 mil gap around the edge of your object or file, this is because the machine can shift the paper slightly whilst printing.

The image, either analog or digital, is then printed on the film around the drum, this is called the master. you feed the paper into the drawer and select the amount of prints you want, the riso is great for printing large quantities.

Laura's Role

Laura as the technician runs the machine, placing in the drums and printing the copies. Before this can even happen there is a level of preplanning involved, Laura sends out instruction sheets to help students understand how the riso printer works.

She then receives all the files ready for print, in the correct separated layers format and a complete colour copy to compare with the physical print.

What I took away

Working with different departments doing tutorials helps you to develop your own practice and understanding of equipment. You can also do this by doing experience courses.

Its best to keep some examples when doing a workshop as it can be used as a visual tool to aid the explanation of the process.

Let the students be creative as the can also aid your understanding of the possibilities of equipment and processes.

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Week five of placement

Layout of the day

Time: 9am-4pm

Morning: Helping out blasting screens

Afternoon: Being available to help students

This Friday was particularly busy so I helped out by blasting some screens for students Laura knew were coming in in the afternoon. There were a lack of screens more than usual as the college were hosting night classes.

I then proceeded to just be available for questions from students and help out where I could, the majority were not to familiar with the process yet so Laura was fairly busy. Helping reiterate the process, go over where equipment was kept and generally helping out with any issues the printers were having, help fix the artwork.

This was not a day with two much learning but it was probably the closest I've came to seeing what having this role as a potential career path. I enjoyed the 'on the ball' aspect of the job as you had to be able to multitask and problem solve.

It was great to see the different types of work created by the students and I think having a job like this would keep your creative spirit keen with all the inspiration.

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Week four of placement

Layout of the day

Time:9am-4pm

Morning: Cleaning rollers

Fixing broken equiptment

Afternoon: Experimenting with text

In the morning i cleaned all the rollers for rolling out ink. This was due to the fact the first block was over for the student and they weren't getting used so much. The time was there to properly inspect the equiptment and clean anything that had been missed by the students. It was quite a tedious job but in order to in turn use less materials it is good to make sure that the existing equiptment is working to standard. The rollers often get ink stuck between the roller blade and handle, which can fall of into ypur ink or create blobs when rolling out the ink. So all rollers were returned to as close to new as possible before being put back.

This showed me just how much people dont take care of materials and equiptment, how little some people care about others work or the quality of there own.

We also took a visit to the 10th floor workshop to have some plastic plates cut to size, after inspecting them for damages such as cracks and chips.

In the afternoon i coated a screen and exposed text on to it. This was my first time working with text and i found it more difficult than image. It was tricky to make sure that all text was pulled evenly. The bed that i used wasnt the best and i had to problem solve to adjust the pressure i was using while printing. The bed was ever so slightly off which taught me that i should always check my equiptment before starting a work.

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Week three of placement

Lay out of the day

Time: 9am-4pm

Morning: Helping students with table top

printing

Coating screens/blasting others

Afternoon: More table top printing

Relief image printing

In the morning a student came in with a large roll of canvas that they wanted to print onto, they only wanted the print on certain parts so laura sugested screen printing table top style. This is where you expose the image on to your screen like how you would normally, instead of using a bed you just position the screen on the desired part of the material atop a table of flat surface.

It usually takes 2 as you need someone to hold the screen flat as you pull it. This was a fast way to get multiple prints done without having to wait for the fabric to dry between pulls. It allowed for minimal smudging as the fabric didnt have to be moved.

I also blasted screens from the night class as the session was over. This meant that there was alot to get through and taught me the planning involved in the job as you have to schedule these things in order to make sure therw is enough materials to go around.

In the afternoon i experimented some more with folded forms and printing. Inking them up and pressing them, using the large rolling bed for bigger scale prints and using my left over ink to create relief print.

Laura said that clean up is where she finds most of her marks for her own prints, i liked that the after thought of a process, such as clean up, could also be used as a valuable time to create new ideas for prints.

It tought me that part of being a print maker is always seeing ways of printing in another thing other than just others existing prints. It made me think outside of the box and experimenting tought me the things that do work and the things that dont.

Such as when using the roller press that the thinner the paper object the more likely it is to stick to the paper you are trying to print on, it leaves more room for smudging as you have to peel it off (hands are often dirty) and can leave finger prints.

The process of printing on the table top taught me that there are ways of printing with minimal space and equiptment that can still produce a high quality print.

Using the spay and brush to loosen the emulsion before blasting

Blasting

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Second week of placement

Layout of the day

Time: 9am-4pm

Morning: Mantinance of studio

Learning about new machines

Helping set up with students

Afternoon: Learning about print processes

Trying them out

In the morning i helped set up the printing bed with the arm, for a student to do large scale prints. I learned about the correct squeegee to use, in order to cover the entire image on the screen.

I learned about the corect angle to position the squeegee at (45°) and was told that it is always better to have your vacuum on when doing larger prints. This ensures that the paper wont move doing a longer stroke with the arm.

I proceeded to help the student in the morning with her screen, reposing the paepepr and moving things to the drying rack, to keep the prints clean.

It was interesting to see someone working at such a large scale, i had never worked that big before or used an arm to help print, so watching the process was quite mesmerising and made me excited to try in the future.

In the afternoon laura showed me how to print using the roller presses. We took existing objects and inked them up to run them through.

I mixed inks to make a desired colour, using intaglio inks which are thicker and less watered down, this helps reduce the amount of bleeding from the inks.

I learned that it is always important to check the pressure of your roller machine in order to get a good result. Trying to make it as even as possible by twisting both spools.

This process ment i had to alot cleaner than usual when printing, as to not get the blankets dirty and keep good studio practice for other students. I learned that if this was an outside studio these things are important as you will often be charged for damages or mess left.

It tought me the amount of varried knowlege and skills a tech has to know in order to inform students in a confident and successful way. Often lectures will be skilled in 1 or 2 aspects but it is often on the techs to be able to take instructions from students and make it a reality. Again homing the fact that in order to do this job a certain level of knowlege, experience and problem solving is necessary.

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First day of placement

The layout of the day:

Time: 9am-4pm

Morning: Routine of starting up studio

Maintenance of machines

General availability for students

Afternoon: Learning techniques and explore

diffrent method of printing

Experimentation

Morning

Today as the studio was quite we started off with cleaning the tables and giving everything a general inspection. Checking roller hights on presses, cleaning beds and fixing a broken machine.

This tought me about the general ins and outs of setting up the studio for students and how important it is to keep your equipment clean, in order to have good practice and high quality prints this is essential.

Fixing the broken roller press took some imagination and tought me how to fix equipment in a creative way. I learned that facilities get budgeted to departs and sometimes you have to beable to fix equitment in unconventional ways (as it cant always be replaced). It showed the problem solving involved in the job and the initiative required by techs.

Afternoon

In the afternoon i gave a quick tutorial to a 4th year student, i showed her how to coat a screen for screen printing and how to expose her image onto the screen.

Later in the afternoon i descussed concepts and ways of printing with Laura.

She gave me insight into how ink reacts on diffrent surfaces. Diffrent thicknesses of paper will take diffrent amounts of ink eg.

Newsprint- good for test printing, will take

1-2 layers of ink

200/250mg paper- 3 layers - upwards

Somerset paper- holds more ink, paper is

textured

Smooth/gloss paper- ink will take longer to

dry

Less layers ink might

move

I then tested out some techniques on folded paper screen printing on top, experimenting on diffrent types of paper and testing out what laura had said before.

Not everything turned out as neat as expected, there was some bleeding of the ink due to the pressure diffrence needed for the diffrent thicknesses of paper. The folded paper was made of newsprint, envelopes and green sugar paper and layed on top of 200mg cartridge paper.