Esko donates software licenses to more than 40 US schools

Educating the future workforce for packaging, POP & wide format

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Esko software Share and Approve Photo Esko
Esko software Share and Approve Photo Esko

Esko has underlined its commitment to future generations of packaging industry workers with a multi-million dollar in-kind donation to support college and university students in their packaging engineering and technology studies. The global developer of integrated software and hardware solutions for the packaging, label and wide format sectors has extended its no-charge donation of software licenses to leading educational institutions across the US. The investment comes ahead of the new school year’s commencement and includes its market-leading structural design and production software platforms.

Melissa Plemen, Esko senior director of Inside Sales and Marketing, said the company was thrilled to continue supporting the next generation of packaging employees’ education with the donation. “We strongly believe in investing in the future of our industry and have supported schools across the country in this way for a number of years now,” said Plemen. “We’re delighted to be able to continue that with this latest significant donation in kind.”

Among the more-than-40 schools utilizing Esko software are Clemson University, Cal Poly University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Ryerson University, University of Wisconsin – Stout, Dunwoody College of Technology, Michigan State University and Indiana State University.

“It’s widely accepted that our sector has an aging workforce and a skills gap continues to become more and more apparent,” she explained. “As technological advances lead to changes within the sector, it’s vitally important that the industry supports the education and training of young people as we drive to develop and inspire the packaging experts of the future.

“Our commitment ensures today’s students are familiar with the latest Esko software utilized around the world to manage packaging and print processes, enabling them to be truly ready for work and have the skills required to enter the sector.”

Through this donation, packaging course tutors can now use the same software that develops 9 out of 10 retail packages for major brands today, and the breadth of software available enables them to teach a wide range of skill sets. Students will be able to design and create packaging systems from ideation to virtual and physical prototypes, preparing them for future roles in a diverse and fast-paced packaging industry.

Melissa Plemen, Esko senior director of Inside Sales and Marketing Photo Esko
Melissa Plemen, Esko senior director of Inside Sales and Marketing Photo Esko

“The global pandemic has underlined the important role technology already plays in keeping the packaging supply chain moving,” said Melissa. “As the future of the industry will inevitably involve further digitization, automation and connectivity, it is crucial that the workforce of tomorrow is as skilled and knowledgeable as possible before they embark on their career. We see this donation as part of our contribution to ensuring that vision becomes a reality, investing in not just the future of these young students, but also of our industry as a whole.”

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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