Students Learn Printing by Running Print Shop

A print shop in California is offering students a unique opportunity to become immersed in the print industry. ROP Printing, in Willows, CA, is run by students from Willows High School.

"Our objective is to teach them how to be employees," remarks Allan Junk, who runs ROP Printing. "I handpick students that I think have the capability to understand what our business is all about.”

His shop features a range of printing services that include business stationary, letterheads, envelopes, raffle tickets, postcards, booklets, notepads and custom graphics.

The shop is located on school grounds and more than 100 students travel through their doors daily as part of a class curriculum to teach students how to be good employees. The class was created to help prepare students for real life scenarios where they will have to interact with customers and work on projects from initial consultation through client delivery.

Recently, Junk wanted to invest in a digital print system to help decrease his downtime, but also wanted something that was user-friendly enough that anyone in his class could feel comfortable using. So he installed a Xanté Impressia and Enterprise Feed System.

“Our customers really like the quality," he says. "One customer told us that our quality is better than the offset press where they use to get their printing done which was a real plus for us. It made us very happy.”

The students are also utilizing iQueue to set up their print runs. They've found that setup from a software and hardware standpoint have been very easy to grasp.

“The students are doing this. They've learned how to do it and they enjoy it," Junk says. "It's just a matter of putting in your settings in iQueue, then load the envelopes, push a button and walk away. I load 500 envelopes and walk away from it. In the past we had more setup time, we had to check the plates and alignment. Our students were first taught how to load envelopes onto the Enterprise Feed System. It's so easy to handle and work with that our students are having a very easy time with it.”