TLMI has announced that the association will once again sponsor the Phoenix Challenge Foundation for another year. The association will be sponsoring the Foundation’s high school and college competitions.

The high school competition is a two-and-a-half-day event that includes five areas of rigorous testing including: operating a flexo press, prepress, platemaking, written knowledge, and flexo math skills. The college competition is a rigorous year-long program that culminates by students presenting projects in front of a panel of industry judges.

For 25 years, the Foundation has been facilitating programs to bring hands-on learning into the graphic communications classrooms across the country. The programs instruct students in the fundamentals of flexo printing and every year the competitions enable the schools to compete for scholarship dollars and recognition.

Bettylyn Krafft, executive director of the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, comments, “Through our active programs, more than 400 high school and college students will be exposed to flexography this year. We all know how much we need young press operators coming into our industry. However, it’s not just operators, companies in our industry also need young marketing people, salespeople, chemists and engineers. What we’re trying to do with this program is to create as much awareness as possible and to let students know what our industry is about and how awesome it is. It’s like we tell the kids every year at the Phoenix Challenge competitions. If you learn this printing process and you do well, you can dream the job that you want and go do it.”

Linnea Keen, TLMI president, comments, “As finding and retaining qualified employees continues to be one of our industry’s most significant challenges, TLMI’s ongoing support of the Phoenix Challenge Foundation remains one of the critical ways that the association is reinforcing its commitment to helping its members, and the greater industry, find and keep young talent. We have members who have hired Phoenix Challenge Foundation graduates over the years and success stories abound. The Foundation remains a cornerstone in bridging the gap between vacant positions in the industry and the qualified young people that can fill them.”