Print Media Academy Opens Its Doors in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Mexico—In June 2005, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) opened a Print Media Academy in Mexico and in doing so established the tenth site in the global training network. 1,500 guests took part in the opening ceremony in Mexico City.

With a population of around 100 million people, Mexico has approx. 9,000 companies in the printing and publishing sector. Eighty-five percent of these are small businesses, ten percent are midmarket companies and five percent are large enterprises. Almost all printshops bemoan the widespread lack of training for skilled employees. Virtually without exception, all printshop employees are semi-skilled and lack a sound technical knowledge. Appreciation of high quality and the acceptance of responsibility are generally quite limited. "Many companies know that having a workforce with better expertise would enable them to increase productivity and meet higher quality requirements. Giving Mexican printshops the expertise to help them compete with low-wage Asian countries and retain their competitiveness were good enough reasons for us to open a PMA in Mexico," says Bernd Schopp, Head of the PMA worldwide.