Postgraduate printing technology education in Nigeria: A window of opportunity at NOUN | EduCeleb
Abdulrasheed Afolabi
3rd June 2019
Getting to the peak of our career is everyone’s goal. But can we all get the opportunities, resources and the motivations to make this a reality? This article examines the role of postgraduate education in developing capacity for the printing industry by beaming light on postgraduate studies in information technology at the National Open University of Nigeria.
Many people work not just for the money but also for the fulfilment that comes with making a success of their careers. So, aside from continual increase in their earning over the years, people also seek progress in their career; they want to get to heights commensurate to their years of experience and contributions to their organisations. And, as they progress, they require different types of knowledge and skills to take them up the ladder. According to management experts, people require different skill sets as they move up in their careers.
For instance, Robert L. Katz, a social and organisational psychologist, explains that people aiming for management roles must possess three areas of managerial skills: Technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills. Katz explains technical skills as knowledge of and the proficiency in activities entailing methods, processes and procedures.
It basically involves using tools, machines and devices. The human skill is explained to be the ability to work with people, to create an environment for teamwork. While conceptual skill is the ability to recognise significant elements in situations and understand the relationship between these elements. In addition to Katz’s three types of skills, there is a fourth – Design skills – defined as the “the ability to solve problems in ways that will benefit the enterprise”.
Katzargues that people require a varying combination of these skills as theyprogress from lower management, through middle management, to top managementlevel. In other words, technical skills are valued at the lower managementlevel, while human skills, conceptual skills and design skills count more atthe top management level. To move to the upper crust of their career, workersneed to acquire the skills commensurate to the level they are aspiring to reachthrough training and human capacity development. Postgraduate education is oneof the many means through which this is achieved.
Postgraduateeducation has been identifiedas one of the sure ways to stay on top of knowledge advancement andtechnological change. One vital feature of postgraduate trainingis specialization –  which deepenslearners’ knowledge in a particular area of study, focusing and directing theirexpertise in core areas of their organizations’ operations. Certainly, advanceknowledge is a cardinal aspect of professionalism.  In the fast-paced business world of which theprinting industry in an integral part, the need for advance and highlyspecialized knowledge has become not only a necessity but a key strategy forsurvival in the stormy sea of competition. According to a report in theinternational edition of The
Guardian, “Graduate students can gain new skills and competences thatwill give them the right equipment to re-enter the competitive arena withrenewed confidence – provided they choose the right programme”.
However,access to such type of postgraduate training for graduates of printingtechnology is not widely available in Nigeria. At present, the only specializedpostgraduate programme for printing technology in Nigeria is the Post-HND(Professional) Printing Technology programme at Kaduna Polytechnic. Whileresidents of Kaduna state and nearby states may avail themselves of thistraining opportunity, those in other parts of the country are clearlydisadvantaged. Besides, the high-pressured workplace nature of the printingindustry requires a study mode that allows printing workers to work and studyat the same time.
There is a window of opportunity for HND graduates of printing technology to pursue postgraduate studies in information technology at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). They can tap into this opportunity through a postgraduate diploma (PGD) in information technology. The admission requirements are; minimum of five credits in o’levels in mathematics, English language, physics, chemistry and any other relevant subject, and HND/Bsc in a wide range of disciplines, including printing technology. The PGD, on successful completion, offers an in-road into further studies at the master’s level, leading to the award of M.Sc. Information technology at the same university. The PGD information technology programme consists of the following modules;
First
semester: The Good study guide (General study), foundation of information andcommunication technology , computer fundamentals, information technology andsoftware development, Micro computing, introduction to internet, Applicationsoftware design and multimedia, information system design and programmming (elective).
Second
semester: multimedia technology, operating systems concept, computer programming,operations research, object-oriented technology (elective), computer networks, andresearch project.
At the master’s level, the modules available are; technical report writing, introduction to database management systems, network design and programming, advanced systems analysis and design, internet concepts and web design, and operating systems concepts and networking management. Others are; data communication and networks and research project. The master’s programme is designed to give students a broad technical understanding of current and emerging technologies in the industry, acquaint them with systems engineering, as well as give them a solid foundation in net-centric computer. Generally, the programme covers the core aspect of engineering pertaining to the use of computers in the collection, storage, and use of data, networking, database management and information security.
A unique feature of NOUN is the institution’s “work and learn” model which suits the busy production schedules of all categories of workers in Nigeria. Given that education is a basic right of everyone at all levels, irrespective of the circumstances they find themselves, the Federal Government-owned University runs an open distance learning (ODL) system that meets the needs of printing workers seeking to acquire higher education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The ODL system is flexible, allowing learners to study what they want, when and where they want.
For the records, NOUN was established in 1983 by the Federal Government of Nigeria for the purpose of ensuring equity and equality of opportunities in education and provide a wider access to education for all and sundry in the country. In the words of the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Abdalla Adamu, “NOUN is fully recognised by the National University Commission. We have programmes that are accredited by NUC.”
The use of computers and other information technologies has become a dominant feature in the contemporary media industry. There is no facet of print media production that has not been digitalised.
From prepress to post press, production planning and control, client service, marketing, to distribution and fulfillment, information technology is no doubt the heartbeat of the print production workflow. The emergence of CIP4 and the adoption of JDF are indicators of the impact of information and communication technology on the print and graphic arts industry.
The CIP4 is a not-for-profit organization in the graphic arts industry that started as CIP3 – International Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press, and Postpress. Now known as CIP4, the organization’ mission is to foster the adoption of process automation in the printing industry. One of the hallmark contributions of this body is the introduction of the Job Definition Format (JDF) which can be accessed at http://www.cip4.org/.
The JDF has become the standard in the graphic arts industry for unifying the prepress, press and postpress aspects of any printing job. It has become the means of bridging the communication gap between production services and Management Information Systems (MIS) in printing companies. In the words of CIP4,
JDF “provides the means to describe print jobs in terms of the products eventually to be created, as well as in terms of the processes needed to create those products. The format provides a mechanism to explicitly specify the controls needed by each process, which might be specific to the devices that will execute the processes.”
The adoption of JDF, amongst other digital technologyinnovations adoptions, exemplifies, clearly, the relevance of informationtechnology knowledge and skills in contemporary printing industry.
Momoh Fredrick Abah, a Kaduna-based printing technologist has had a taste of the pudding, so he can tell whether it is sweet or not. After completing his ND and HND in printing technology in 2010 and 2013 respectively, Abah took a shot at the PGD information technology programme at NOUN after his youth service.
On the relevance of the PGD information technology to printing technology, Abah noted that, “Information Technology is not just relevant to printing Technology but it plays core roles in the printing process. Both go together to achieve results and obviously make printing process simple, reliable, timely and accurate. Print media cannot run efficiently and effectively without the application of information technology because it helps to manage information or data needed to achieve desired prints. Information Technology helps to handle effectively graphic reproduction, data management, data formats, file/data transfer, colour matching and so on in printing industry. Therefore, running a PGD information technology programme  is very  important as it improves  the knowledge on the application of the above mentioned tasks in printing process”.
Askedabout the extent the courses he took at both the ND and HND levels in printingtechnology had prepared him for the PGD information technology programme, Abahresponded thus; “My decision to run PGD information technology program cameafter having taken a course ‘general information technology’ during my NationalDiploma (ND) program in printing technology at Kaduna Polytechnic. The courserevealed to me the modernity of printing, hence the desire to further on it.The decision was affirmed while I was running my Higher National Diploma (HND)in printing technology at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.  The affirmation came after taking somecourses such as desktop publishing, colour management and others. The above mentioned courses at my ND andHND levels opened my eyes to realise that the knowledge of informationtechnology is needed to stand the current and future challenges in the printingindustry. I boldly went for PGD information technology because I already hadthe basic knowledge of it from my ND and HND in printing technology program. Itwill interest you to know that part of what I learnt during my first degreerepeated or reflected in the PGD program”.
Abahacknowledged that the knowledge he gained from the PGD information technologyprogramme has greatly enhanced his knowledge and practice of printing in suchaspects like creating files, file management, data transfer among others. Heremarked that this has motivated him to go further in studying IT in thecontext of printing by moving on to the masters degree programme in informationtechnology.  From his experience he hasthe following words of advice for printing technology graduates in Nigeria onthe relevance of postgraduate training; “My advice for the printing technologygraduates is that they should realise that we are in a competitive world and sothere’s need to improve and add more value to what they already have in orderto have an edge in the challenging market. Going for postgraduate program is anopportunity to make yourself stand out among your colleagues and will alsoimprove your personal skills in the practice of printing and other relatedprofession”.