City and Guilds of London Institute · RQF Level 3

City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Digital Pre-Press for Print

You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.

  • LevelRQF Level 3
  • Total credits37
  • Guided learning151 hours
  • Units in this qualification23

Awarded by City and Guilds of London Institute · on the Ofqual register

Start here

See how this course maps onto your role

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.

Check my fluency, free

About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to

What you’ll learn

What each unit actually teaches you to do

These are the units City and Guilds of London Institute registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.

Contribute to Improving the Effectiveness of the Print OrganisationReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Obtain and understand the work schedule
  • Ensure that the correct quantities of products and materials and human resources are used.
  • Minimise wastage of materials
  • Know why it is important to contribute to improving the effectiveness of the organisation
  • Know what information to share with colleagues on your job role and why this is important.
  • Share information with colleagues.
  • Identify and pass on improvements to work activities
  • Know how and why to identify opportunities and needs for self development and how to manage this informa
Control The Use Of Variable Data With Digital Printing MachinesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Prepare variable data for use in digital printing
  • Produce personalised printed products using variable data
  • Control the use of variable data with digital printing machines
Design And Produce Creative Digital Colour Artwork For PrintReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Agree a design specification for digital artwork for print
  • Produce creative digital colour artwork
  • Amend digital colour artwork as required to meet customer and product specification
  • Design and produce creative digital colour artwork for print
Maintain Digital Systems In Working OrderReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Start up and close down imaging systems
  • Contribute to the effective operation of digital systems
  • Maintain digital systems in working order
Make Gravure CylindersReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Produce gravure cylinders for print
  • Prepare the gravure cylinder
  • Transfer the image to the cylinder
  • Transfer the image to the cylinder
Make lithographic printing platesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Produce lithographic printing plates
  • Maintain lithographic printing plates
  • Produce lithographic printing plates
Make photopolymer plates for flexographic printingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Prepare photopolymer plates for print
  • Process photopolymer plates
  • Make photopolymer plates for flexographic printing
Manage Colour Digital Printing MachinesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Prepare digital colour printing machines for print
  • Control the operation of digital colour printing machines
  • Maintain digital colour printing machines in serviceable condition
  • Manage digital colour printing machines
  • Monitor the quality of output from the digital printing machines
  • Monitor the quality of product throughout the Production process
Manage Colour Reproduction In Digital Pre-PressReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Manage the calibration of digital prepress equipment
  • Configure pre-press software within the workflow
  • Use colour profiles correctly
  • Manage colour reproduction in digital pre-press
Materials Handling, Transportation and Storage within the Print Working EnvironmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Identify and select the required type and quantity of materials.
  • Handle and transport materialsin accordance with Company guidelines
  • Know the impact of incorrect handling and transporting of materials
  • Position /store materials in accordance with organisational procedures.
  • Position or store materials in accordance with organisational procedures.
Output Digital Image Carriers for PrintReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Impose images electronically
  • Prepare images for processing
  • Produce and process image carrier
  • Produce computer-generated image carriers
Plan and Produce Edited ImagesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Decide on the imaging approach
  • Produce edited images
  • Plan and produce edited images
Plan work to meet production requirementsReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Interpret production requirements
  • Plan production tasks to meet customer requirements
  • Plan work to meet production requirements
Preflight Digital FilesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Preflight digital artwork files
  • Interpret and report the results of preflighting digital artwork files
  • Preflight digital files
Prepare Stencils for PrintingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Prepare the mesh
  • Prepare the mesh
  • Prepare stencils for production
  • Prepare stencils
Produce Approved Colour Proofs From Digital ArtworkReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Produce digital proofs for print
  • Assess proofs against required specifications
  • Modify digital artwork to meet specifications
  • Produce approved proofs from digital artwork
Promote and Maintain Health and Safety in a Print Related Working EnvironmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Know which acts, regulations and guidelines apply to the print related working environment.
  • Monitor and implement changes in health and safety acts, regulations and guidelines.
  • Carry out a formal assessment of hazards and risks in the print related working environment and the types of risk or hazards that exist
  • Identify hazards and assess risks in the print related working environment.
  • Promote safe working practices
  • Promote safe working practices
  • Adopt a safe method of work.
  • Ensure there is no unauthorised
Send and Receive Digital FilesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Send digital files by electronic means
  • Receive digital files by electronic means
  • Send and receive digital files
Set and Run GuillotinesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Set/programme and run guillotines
  • Run guillotines
  • Monitor quality of guillotine cutting
  • Monitor quality of guillotine cutting
Set and Run multi-knife trimming machineryReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Set multi-knife trimming machinery
  • Run multi-knife trimming machinery
  • Set and run multi-knife trimming machinery
Set and run booklet making machineryReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Set booklet-making machinery
  • Run booklet making machinery
  • Set and run booklet making machinery
Understanding the Print IndustryReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the Printing Processes used within the Print Industry
  • Understand the factors that influence the choice of Printing Process
  • Know the types of equipment used within the Print Industry
  • Recognise and understand the need for confidentiality within the Print Industry
Use of scanning techniques to create digital imagesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute

What you'll be able to do

  • Decide on the appropriate scanning approach
  • Prepare equipment and material for scanning
  • Produce and save scanned images in line with the job specification and Company standards
  • Plan and capture digital images

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

Your passport

Every credit is a stamp you keep

Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.

Contribute to Improving the Effectiveness of the Print OrganisationControl The Use Of Variable Data With Digital Printing MachinesDesign And Produce Creative Digital Colour Artwork For PrintMaintain Digital Systems In Working OrderMake Gravure CylindersMake lithographic printing platesMake photopolymer plates for flexographic printingManage Colour Digital Printing Machines

Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.

Who’d teach you this

The Evidence Evaluator

Assessor

Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.

Meet all twelve tutors

Where this connects

Where these credits take you

A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration
City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Digital Pre-Press for Print
  • Capture images from specific sources
  • Collate Print
  • Collate Print Job Cost Information
  • Collect, sort and distribute materials internally
  • Control Colour in Pre Press
  • Control Digital Colour Printing Machines
  • Control output and quality from flat sheet digital colour printing machines
  • Control output and quality from three dimensional printing machines
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

Skills it covers

What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.

Capture images from specific sourcesCollate PrintCollate Print Job Cost InformationCollect, sort and distribute materials internallyControl Colour in Pre PressControl Digital Colour Printing MachinesControl digital colour printing machinesControl output and quality from flat sheet digital colour printing machinesControl output and quality from three dimensional printing machinesControl output and quality from web fed digital colour printing machinesControl the Set-Up of Web Fed Digital Colour Printing MachinesControl the set-up of flat sheet digital colour printing machinesControl the setup of three-dimensional printing machinesControl the use of variable data with digital printing machinesCreate digital colour artwork for printCut page edges and binding materials by guillotineDesign and produce creative colour artwork for printDesign and produce creative digital colour artwork for print+31 more

How you’ll actually learn this

One-to-one, on your own real work

A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.

One-to-one, on your real workNo lectures, no past-papers. Every unit is practised on the actual tasks your job throws at you, a tutor beside you, not a video in front of you.
Taught to the top, not the testMost courses stop at remembering. Your companion keeps climbing: analysing, judging, creating. That’s the part a machine can’t do for you.
Credits you keep, a map that continuesEvery unit is regulated and yours for good. The day you finish, Zavmo already knows the next role your new credits open.
Contribute to Improving the Effectiveness of the Print OrganisationLevel 3

Applied to your own work

How the thinking builds
  1. Remember
  2. Understand
  3. Apply
  4. Analyse
  5. Evaluate
  6. Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.
Your PlanIllustration

Built for City & Guilds Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Digital Pre-Press for Print

23 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by City and Guilds of London Institute.

  1. Contribute to Improving the Effectiveness of the Print Organisation
  2. Control The Use Of Variable Data With Digital Printing Machines
  3. Design And Produce Creative Digital Colour Artwork For Print
  4. Maintain Digital Systems In Working Order
  5. Make Gravure Cylinders
  6. Make lithographic printing plates

and 17 more in the full unit list below.

These are the real units of this credential, in its own order. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

  1. Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
  2. What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
  3. The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
  4. How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
  5. Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

Why it sticks

Most courses stop at remembering

There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.

  1. 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
  2. 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
  3. 4AnalyseThe Analyst
  4. 3ApplyThe Coach
  5. 2UnderstandThe Connector
  6. 1RememberThe Builder

Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you

Why this matters: AI can already remember and understand for you. What it can’t do is take your real problem and judge the right call. So the only learning worth paying for is the learning that takes you to the top. That’s exactly what a tutor doing it with you, on your real work, is for.

The value

Why the companion is worth £70 a month

You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.

That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.

Earned on your own work, taught to the top.

Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.

Build my plan, free

No card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.