Closing the skills gap: How Toppan is building a smarter flexo workforce with blended training

Finding skilled flexographic press operators has become one of the industry’s greatest challenges. But for many converters, hiring is only half the battle. The bigger question is how to train new employees thoroughly without sacrificing production, quality, or experienced operators’ time on press.

At Toppan’s flexible packaging facility in Hickory, NC, USA, the company has found a way to better balance those competing priorities by combining its established in-house training program with APR’s FlexoAcademy, a blended learning platform that mixes self-paced online education, instructor-led sessions, and hands-on instruction.

The result has been a more structured and scalable approach to workforce development — one that extends beyond press operators to quality personnel, supervisors, and other support staff.

A common challenge for converters

David Wheatley, press trainer at Toppan, understands firsthand the difficulties of training in a busy production environment. Having progressed from press assistant to press operator before becoming the facility’s trainer, he knows production schedules don’t stop simply because new employees need instruction.

“One of the primary issues I’ve always had is having enough manpower so that the press can continue to run efficiently while I’m trying to train someone,” Wheatley says. “Ultimately, I’m left with making sure that person is trained, but at the same time, I have to keep the press running efficiently without sacrificing production.”

It’s a challenge familiar to converters throughout the industry. Experienced operators are often expected to maintain productivity while simultaneously mentoring new employees, creating a difficult balancing act between education and throughput.

Blending online learning with hands-on experience

Rather than replacing Toppan’s existing training program, FlexoAcademy was used to strengthen it.

Following an onsite assessment by APR in 2024, Wheatley worked with APR executive vice president Catherine Haynes to build a structured training path that complemented the company’s hands-on instruction.

The first group of 10 employees began the program in February 2025. Participants attended an introductory classroom session before completing approximately eight weeks of FlexoAcademy’s online Flexo Fundamentals curriculum. The program concluded with an advanced instructor-led session that reinforced key concepts before employees transitioned into more equipment-specific training.

For Wheatley, the greatest benefit wasn’t simply the online coursework—it was how the curriculum connected every stage of the flexographic workflow.

“I heard a lot of my people say, ‘Well, that makes sense now,'” he says. “I may have touched on some of those topics before, but not always in the right order. When it’s presented in a clear flow, it’s easier for people to understand how everything connects.”

Beyond the pressroom

One unexpected outcome was the value the program provided employees outside the pressroom.

Quality managers, supervisors, and support personnel participated alongside production employees, giving them a broader understanding of how decisions made in prepress ultimately affect press performance.

“A number of people said they didn’t realize that if something doesn’t get done correctly in prepress, it’s going to affect us downstream,” Wheatley explains. “It’s going to hit the pressroom and limit what our capabilities are.”

That broader understanding has encouraged Toppan to consider expanding FlexoAcademy to additional departments, including graphics, prepress, and quality assurance.

More than operator training

Another element that resonated with Toppan was FlexoAcademy’s virtual press simulator, which allows employees to better understand press functions and print variables without interrupting production.

Wheatley also points to the program’s color theory modules as particularly valuable for both newer operators and experienced press personnel.

“Catherine did a great section on color theory, and it opened a lot of people’s eyes,” he says. “Some people had been running press for a couple of years and had never really thought about what we’re looking at and how we measure color. I learned some things from that as well.”

A repeatable model

Encouraged by positive feedback from the first class, Toppan enrolled a second group later in the year and is now evaluating additional participants, including newer operators, press assistants, quality personnel, and other support staff.

For Haynes, the program’s success reflects FlexoAcademy’s broader mission.

“The success at Toppan shows what can happen when a company combines internal expertise with a structured, flexible learning platform,” she says. “FlexoAcademy is designed to support the way converters actually train, with a balance of online learning, instructor engagement, discussion, and practical application.”

An investment in the future

As labor shortages continue to challenge the flexographic printing industry, many converters are rethinking how they develop talent. Traditional apprentice-style training remains invaluable, but increasingly it is being supplemented with standardized educational tools that help employees build a common foundation before stepping onto the production floor.

Toppan’s experience demonstrates that workforce development doesn’t have to come at the expense of productivity. By combining structured online learning with experienced mentorship, the company has created a repeatable training model that strengthens technical knowledge across departments while allowing production to continue moving forward.