|
Filipina Successfully passes FOGRA Accreditation in Germany
 Aurora Kitane-Koehler,
a former PPTF lecturer and a familiar name in the Philippine
printing industry has recently successfully passed the Fogra
certification exam for proofing in July 14-15 2009 held at
Ratingen, Germany. The certification was facilitated by
Fogra, a globally recognized organization composed of over
700 members whose objective is to promote print engineering
and its future-oriented technologies in the fields of
research, development and application, and to enable the
printing industry to utilize the results of this activity.
The organization’s members represent graphic art business
operating in fields ranging from prepress through to
bookbinding, and suppliers, a third of which are members
outside Germany.
Aurora was
fortunate enough to have been given the chance to take this
certification. Now, she totally understands what Fogra has
been rallying all these years and the reason why the
European community is uniting to achieve one standard.
”While learning
the details of the ISO standards for printing, I can’t help
thinking about our Philippine printing industry. How I wish
our printers start realizing these standards so we can
compete internationally as some of our neighboring countries
are already doing like China and India. By complying with
such standards, we make every printing company equally
competitive producing the same quality prints as with those
produced in Europe or in the US. Why concentrate on the
local market, look at the big picture” – Aurora.
 Au, as most of
the people in the industry knows her, has been working
professionally in the field of graphic arts for almost 17
years. She had her early exposure in the business as a young
child working for her father’s printing house every summer
‘with pay’ at the bindery department. She did not know that
this would eventually mold her mind to take the same path as
her father’s, Boy Kitane, who is a familiar and respectable
figure in the Philippine printing industry.
After she
graduated from the University of the Philippines, Diliman,
she immediately joined the family business and in between
worked for an Apple distributor and a local graphic arts
machineries and supplies company. In 1996, she joined INGRIN
(International Graphic Arts in the Netherlands), through
PPTF and the INGRIN foundation for a 3-month graphic arts
upgrade training program, which was her first exposure to
the European graphic arts industry. This was followed by an
update program in 1999.
With her broad
exposure in the graphic arts business, both locally and
internationally, she unselfishly shared her knowledge to the
industry by actively participating in PPTF as a regular
lecturer particularly in the area of digital prepress. She
has also organized well-attended seminars with both PPTF and
PIAP, and in addition, has contributed her expertise to
PIBFI for its skills standardization and trade testing
projects.
Not only did the
printing industry have a great influence in Au’s career but
also did it have an impact in her personal life. In 2004,
she married Florian Koehler, a German national who was
formerly with Best Color (now EFI), whom she met in one of
PIAP’s Printing Update seminars when he was invited as a
resource speaker in color management system.
 Au continued to
focus in the same field even after leaving the Philippines.
In Singapore, she worked for global companies - a UK-based
label-printing company, WorldMark, and a New Zealand
company, Quickcut, where she was recognized by her
management and colleagues for her outstanding contributions
and efforts.
Today, Aurora is
working for EFI Germany, as Technical Support Engineer for
proofing, taking care of all non-German EFI dealers in
Europe. Within 1 1/2 years, she adapted to the German
culture and EFI business culture, gaining respect and
recognition from her management and colleagues. Aurora has
once again proved her expertise in prepress with continuous
positive feedback from customers for her reliability and
professionalism in handling their proofing support issues.
With her recent
Fogra certification, she has definitely made another
milestone not only for herself but also for the Philippine
printing industry who is proud for Aurora’s passion and
dedication to the graphic arts.
Captions:
Middle Photo:
Aurora Kitane-Koehler with Ulrich Schmitt, Quality
Management Department Head, FOGRA.
Bottom Photo:
Aurora Kitane-Koehler, the only female and Asian participant
as she pose together with her mentors and 6 other
co-participants coming from other parts of Europe that
passed the FOGRA certification exams. |
