YORK & County Press has become the first newspaper group in Britain to promote on-line learning via the Internet for staff who operate the presses.

This year 15 press operatives who produce the Evening Press, Gazette & Herald and Star series, as well as the Advertiser and Northern Echo titles, will embark on the new cyber studying. More will follow in 2003.

By tackling Level 2 City and Guilds 5260 in machine printing via Leeds College of Technology's portal, www.print-media.net, they will be pioneering distance learning in the industry.

The award-winning course combines on-site training and learning through printed-off course notes. The website also offers tutor support for trainees.

Tony Newsholme, 44, reel stand controller at York & County Press in Walmgate, York, said: "I've been in the printing industry for 17 years, building up knowledge of how to refurbish and install presses as well as installing ink supplies, etc, but I have never had a recognisable qualification. This is a great opportunity.

"Our shift pattern, which gives us five days off every three weeks and Wednesday and Thursday every other week, means that I have plenty of time to get down to serious studying, either directly off the Internet at home or by printing sections of the manual which I can look at anywhere."

Helen Hora, training manager for York & County Press, publishers of the Evening Press, said: "It is incredibly convenient and accessible. The staff can beam into their course at home, at work or even on holiday. And the great thing is that they can work at their own speed to gain a qualification internationally recognised as underpinning their practical know-how."

John Proctor, of Leeds College, who helped write the course programme, said: "This all arose because the average age in the printing industry is about 50 and many of them do not have formal qualifications.

"And without these it is hard to benchmark standards which need to be so immensely high in a high tech field.

"This course, which won the Becta/Guardian award for post-16 on line training, will without doubt be the start of a training revolution in the industry and York & County Press is in the phalanx of that revolution."

Updated: 09:37 Tuesday, January 29, 2002