Kathy Woodward, executive chairman, BPIF Training
"There is more mentoring going on in the industry than many would think, though maybe not in the formalised way seen in some other sectors. I’m not sure that is a bad thing, as the art of great mentoring is its flexibility and that it is mentee-driven. We are often approached to recommend mentors, but I can’t help but feel there is much talent that has maybe retired from the industry that could be harnessed more. We do some of it with our NVQ associate assessors, but I think we have a way to go to really bring together an obvious need with an available resource. I hope as an industry we can get our minds around mentoring as it offers such great benefits."

Ralph Bell, divisional general manager, CPI Antony Rowe
"We don’t have a specific mentoring programme. However, we do have a training programme provided by learnED that embeds mentoring within it. The staff taking part in the programme will all be working towards a qualification, but at the same time they will be in contact through an online system with external mentors who are already trained and experienced print people. This helps new staff to understand how the print industry works and what difficulties they might face, while enabling them to raise their standards towards achieving better quality."

Trevor Goodwin, founder, Goodwin Print
"There is a lot of doom and gloom in the industry at the moment and I think training and mentoring has definitely suffered as a result of that. It’s a tough climate and people are not prepared to spend the time or the money aspects of their business unless they really have to. Budgets are being tightly managed, but training and mentoring schemes are needed for print to have a future. New technology is all well and good until it goes wrong, so unless you have the training and skills base in place to deal with such situations then you will have a problem."

Oliver Thomas, head of tendering and responsible business, Cloc
"We believe in the value of apprenticeship and mentoring schemes. If we have someone new to the business, we always try to buddy them up with someone that has the experience and skills set that they can learn from. It is as much about the skills and experience they can learn from, though, as it is the mentality of hard work. We have staff here that have years of experience that is going to be of value to somebody new to the business. Regardless of who you are, you can be influenced by whom and by what is around you, especially when you are young and impressionable."