Establishment of the advanced printing technology centre at Hong Kong institute of vocational education (Kwun tong)

Abstract

This paper describes an industry and academic partnership initiative at Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Kwun Tong). The project includes the establishment of the Advanced Printing Technology Centre at the Institute using a US$1.1 million funding from the Government. The Centre has set up a state-of-the-art digital printing production environment with equipment connected together using high-speed computer network. Generous support has been obtained from equipment manufacturers, which have installed about US$2.3 million worth of advanced equipment at the Centre. This initiative has created a 3-way winning situation for the students, the industry, and the equipment manufacturers. The students can acquire hands-on experience in using the advanced printing equipment, the printing industry can send its personnel to the Centre to receive training, and finally the manufacturers can use the Centre to showcase their latest products. This kind of establishment creates a partnership model that benefits all parties concerned and the model can be extended to other industries as well.