Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Designation of occupation

Printer
Recognized by ordinance of May 2, 2000 (BGBl. I p. 654)

Duration of traineeship

3 years

One-third of the training takes place in one of the four following areas:

• planographic printing
• relief printing
• intaglio printing
• digital printing

The venues for training are the company and part-time vocational school (Berufsschule).

Field of activity

Printers work in enterprises of the printing trade or the printing industry, for example

• jobbing houses
• book printing enterprises
• newspaper printing works
• illustration intaglio printers
• packaging printing works
• continuous and form printers
• wallpaper printing works and
• digital printing works.

 
They set up printing presses to job order specifications and control the printing process for the total print run. They analyse concrete work tasks, select product-specific materials and processing paths and carry out order-related production planning. They use the data flow from the prepress stage to the printing plate production. They work in a customer-oriented manner, taking into account economic and ecological aspects as well as the purpose of the finished product and the technical conditions of the production process.

Occupational skills

Printers

• plan production processes independently and as part of a team,
• accept analogue and digital data and prepare it for printing forme production,
• use production data and make printing plates for various applications,
• select and use printing inks and substrate for the respective purposes,
• set up printing presses and print single and multicolour products, at the same time checking and optimising the printing process in accordance with quality standards and the printer's copy,
• apply product and production-specific after-print processing techniques,
• carry out measuring and testing activities as part of quality management.

Printers in planographic printing

• set up sheet-fed or web offset presses and control the printing process in a standardized way,
• carry out process-oriented measuring and testing work,
• print, for example, jobbing or book-printing products, newspapers, magazines or packaging material.

Printers in the relief printing

• set up relief printing presses and control the printing process,
• carry out process-oriented measuring and testing work,
• print newspapers, labels, packaging material, etc.

Printers in intaglio printing

• set up web-fed intaglio printing presses with support from the control room,
• control inline production,
• print magazines, catalogues, wallpaper, packaging material, etc.

Printers in digital printing

• prepare data for printing jobs,
• set up digital printing presses and control the printing process,
• print jobbing products, personalised printed matter, mailings, etc.

Through optional training units, the training of the printer is matched to various areas of work, in keeping with specific products and production types.

These areas include in particular:

• making or finishing printing plates,
• digital printing work flow,
• second printing process,
• after-print processing,
• control room technology,
• inline production,
• machinery,
• customer advisory service and
• quality management.
   
  

Last modified on: December 12, 2006