High School In-plant Trains Next Generation of Printers

One of the biggest concerns across the printing industry is the lack of young people interested in learning the trade. To address this predicament, the in-plant at Great Crossing High School in Georgetown, Kentucky, has taken steps to bring Gen Z into the fold.

Jaeden Robinson (left) and Ka’Dynne Williams mount vinyl on corrugated plastic for Great Crossing High School and Scott County High School senior signs.

When Great Crossing opened its doors in 2019, Dewayne Hancock, information technology (IT) instructor at the school, was among its original staff members. At his previous job, Hancock had begun investing in different equipment to keep things interesting.

“We were just working, doing graphic design, basic web pages, and stuff like that,” he says. “And I was bored out of my mind, and the kids were bored out of their minds because there was nothing to show for what we did; it couldn’t get published anywhere. So, long story short, I bought a piece of equipment — a vinyl cutter — and brought it into the classroom, and it took off really big.”

Marissa Hancock, Dewayne’s wife, began as an IT and computer science program instructor at Great Crossing a year after her husband. Before working together, the two had talked “every night” about wanting to combine Dewayne’s experience with Marissa’s expertise from her career with the Kentucky Department of Education to “make a really cool program that didn’t exist,” says Dewayne Hancock.

Dewayne and Marissa Hancock

Four years later, that dream is a reality. The in-plant at Great Crossing High School does work for all 15 schools in the Scott County school district, as well as work for community businesses.

“A lot of that just happens because a student is passionate about either the family-based business,” explains Marissa Hancock, “or they know someone and they’re bringing in the work without us really needing to advertise a whole lot, which is important to us because we cannot lose sight of the fact that we are a school and we are a training facility, and that’s our primary focus.”

The Equipment

The in-plant has a host of equipment in its facility. Its chief production device is a Canon imagePRESS V700, but it also runs a Mimaki UJF-6042 MkIIe UV printer, a Roland TruVIS VG2-540, an HP Designjet Z6200, an Epson SureColor F2270 direct-to-garment/film printer, a Mimaki LA-160W laminator, a VinylExpress Q30 vinyl cutter, and two Canon ID printers. The shop’s bindery equipment includes a Duplo DC-618 slitter/cutter/creaser, a Duplo DPC-600 diecutter, a Duplo DFL-500 foiler, and a Triumph 5255 cutter. All have been added within the last year and a half, says Dewayne Hancock, who notes that Canon was particularly helpful in getting the resources the operation needed.

Max Marsh (left) and Emily Ferrell use the Duplo DPC-600 to cut PVC.
| Credit: (All photos) Great Crossing High School

“When we got the V700 in, we were the fourth one in the United States to get one, so trainers were not trained on the V700,” he says. “So, the trainer that came out was a very nice lady, but she had not received the training on that machine. When [Canon] asked for my feedback, I explained to them that she was a great person and probably a great trainer, but she needed the training on the equipment before she went out and started training other people. Well, they heard me, and they actually sent somebody in from New York who had been working with the V700 to give us additional training at no cost to us.”

Having access to the latest technology makes the Great Crossing in-plant invaluable to the community — and to other printers.

“Let’s put it this way: There are companies that come to us that are in the printing industry who want to use us as a printer, like a third-party partner, because we have equipment that they don’t have,” says Dewayne Hancock.

How the Program Works

Delving into the details of the program, Marissa Hancock says the State of Kentucky has career pathways built into the high school curriculum, which involves four courses — one per year.

Sawyer Jansen uses the Mimaki UJF-6042 MKIIe to print on acrylic award plaques for the annual Great Crossing Hawkspy awards event, which recognizes outstanding athletes.

“Those first two courses are focused primarily on training — graphic design, all things computers, if you will,” she says. “But then we’ve kind of established some base projects in those first two classes that allow the students to go through the entire process of design, production, finishing, and then even sales. So that design-thinking model is brought to life. But as a student really shows the aptitude and the passion, we don’t just stop with those first two years.”

She explains that students who are interested in continuing down the printing path can work at the tech help desk as one of their classes. Beyond that, students in their senior year can take on paid positions at the in-plant — there are four in the program now — or do a co-op with a local partner.

By the end of two years — or four years, if they’re ambitious — students ultimately have developed the hard and soft skills they’ll need in the workforce, as well as built a portfolio of work that can help them secure a job after graduation.

“It gives our students access to jobs that are not made-up projects in our classroom; it’s real-world projects,” says Dewayne Hancock.

The Takeaway

The Hancocks say the program is “building a pipeline” for students to enter the workforce, whether they go on to work in production, equipment maintenance, or graphic design — or even do these on the side.
Marissa Hancock says the in-plant generates enough revenue to pay for ink, paper, and other supplies without the support of its organization, even with the mishaps that come with training students on machines.

While setting up a program like the one at Great Crossing takes a lot of work, Dewayne Hancock says he believes any in-plant can do it if its staff has the motivation and puts in the effort. It may be daunting for some, says Marissa Hancock, but her advice to those who are hesitant is to just take the first step.

“A lot of people may be paralyzed in being able to make a big step like this — in adding print equipment — because of financial constraints, or you have students and they are going to make mistakes,” she says. “We’re learning as teachers and we’re going to make mistakes, and since we’ve taken the leap here, it is kind of freeing that we have reached a level where it’s OK to make those errors.”