This event served to present the results to a wide circle of users and to express opinions and “best practices”. Both the restricted workshop and the orientation meeting gathered 25+ participants including the university representatives, VET providers and students.

The morning session of the YWD was dedicated to statements and keynotes by important stakeholders. After the introduction by Prof. Dr. Wittenzellner and the project leader Beatrice Klose from intergraf Prof. Dr. Volker Jansen from the Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart gave insights on the internationalisation of the higher education in the print and media sector. He also presented about new trends in print production and the great variety of printed products. Afterwards, industry representatives had their say, on the one hand Dr. Michael Seydel, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen on PYF and Print 4.0 from the perspective of the supply industry and on the other Anke Frieser Tausch from the DFTA, the German Flexographic Technical Association. She spoke about the packaging industry’s view of the shortage of skilled workers. A presentation by the head of the Gutenberg School for vocational training, Stuttgart, Edgar Waldraff rounded off the morning.

Thus, opinions from the stakeholders of the sector could be heard on the one hand, and on the other, young people who already work in the sector gave their statements in the afternoon session. After the introduction by Prof. Dr. Volker Jansen Melanie Erlewein from the printer’s association dmpi pointed out how important it is to attract new skilled workers. The first testimonial was then given by Celisa Völckel. After her apprenticeship as a “Mediengestalter” she enrolled in the study course Print Media Management (B.Sc.) at HdM and now finished, she is running her own business called “GRAFIK.LISEL” in communication design as a classical freelancer. In his testimonial Dr. Heiko Angermann reported about his apprenticeship as a printer followed by the bachelor degree in “Druck- und Medientechnologie” (B.Eng.) at the HdM. After finishing a master degree, he pursued a PhD about personalised publications in cross media and now is working as a lecturer at the Hochschule Darmstadt, Hessen Germany, Fachbereich Gestaltung. Prof. Dr. Bettina Tabel, teaching design in the study course “Wirtschaftsingenieur Medien” at HdM presented about the importance of design skills in the print and media area. In his presentation Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gunter Hübner from the study program “Print Media Technologies” emphasized that print is much more than applying coloured ink on paper. He showed the broad range of products that are opened by functional printing or printed electronics. The associations that are common in the society that print comprises old fashioned processes like they were already used by Gutenberg must change in the brains of young people.

The presentations ended with referencing the videos on the PYF website and one video from the website of the study course PMT (www.hdm-stuttgart.de/pmt).

The testimonials and presentations were followed by a very lively discussion round that summarised the day. The discussion lasted almost one hour longer than originally scheduled. Unfortunately, mainly stakeholders and presenters gave their opinions, the contribution of participating students and pupils was very low.