Oldham College get new VersaCamm

The Signs & Graphics department has been training young signmakers since the mid 1980's, first of all delivering the old City & Guilds courses in Signwork and since 1998 the NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Signmaking.

Bob Higgins, who has run the department since 1997, has steadily built up the department facilities, which now has a modern workshop and design room with industry standard equipment and software. The design room has ten computers all running FlexiEXPERT signmaking software and all networked to a vinyl plotter. At the time of writing the department is awaiting the delivery of a new Roland VersaCamm printer/plotter which will give students the opportunity to add digital printing to their signmaking skills.

The department can accommodate up to seventeen students and is kept busy five days a week with first and second year full-time groups and two part-time groups of year ten and year eleven school pupils who want to learn vocational skills before leaving school at sixteen.

The majority of the students are in the sixteen to nineteen years old age bracket and during their two years at the College are introduced to a broad range of signmaking techniques including sign layout and design, vinyl application, digital print, fabrication, brush painting, spray painting and traditional signwriting.

Bob has built good relationships with local sign companies who have supported him by taking students on work experience and in many cases full-time employment when they have finished the NVQ 2 qualification.
One such company, BSGA member, Graphisign, who are the largest sign company in the Oldham area, approached Bob with the idea of setting up a Signmaking Academy where the full-time students would spend several weeks working at the company for three days a week to gain experience in their methods of production and the opportunity to be trained on some of the most up to date machinery and equipment in the industry. At the end of the academic year at least one of the students will be offered full-time employment by the company and all of them will have gained valuable experience to add to their CV. This is the first year of its operation and so far the feedback from both the company and students has been very positive.

Bob's future plans include the introduction of digital printing and increasing the full-time programme to three years by offering the NVQ Level 3 Technical Certificate.

If you want more information on what is on offer in the Signs & Graphics Department at The Oldham College, you can contact Bob Higgins on 0161 785 4275 or email: robert.higgins@oldham.ac.uk I

Top of page