# American Screen Printing Association?



## mustangFWL (Feb 27, 2012)

So is this American Screen Printing Association, a real thing? Or is this one of those "fan club" type deals?

Does anyone know or am I just wasting my time getting "certified"?

Here is the link: screenprinting-aspa.com


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## buehrle (Jan 14, 2008)

it looks like a real thing but why do you need it ? will it get you more business ? will it get you discounts on shirts or supplies ? i didn't look really well but i did not see anything like that. or a graphic design certificate for 50 bucks. i like to learn but if it won't advance my business why would i do it ? with my graphic arts ability now i can create my own diploma if i want one.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I dunno. Looked like a rip off to me. I don't know of any screen printers that are certified. It isn't a requirement for the job. If you notice what they are selling are classes to get you "certified". Certified by whose standards? Not mine.


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## mustangFWL (Feb 27, 2012)

lben said:


> I dunno. Looked like a rip off to me. I don't know of any screen printers that are certified. It isn't a requirement for the job. If you notice what they are selling are classes to get you "certified". Certified by whose standards? Not mine.


Thats what I figured too, but to become "certified" you just need to take one of their test which is free, and also as I was looking through their site, I found a few screen print dealers that were "certified" on their site as well. So i still dont know what to make of it.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

It's a guy who found a way to make some money. He created a need that doesn't exist and is trying to get customers to buy into it. I'm thinking no one passes the test, or the test is just the beginning. If you want to "move up" you need more and more classes. It's a rip off. Don't waste your money or your time. I doubt if those testimonials are from real printers anyhow. A real printer knows it's a scam.


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## mustangFWL (Feb 27, 2012)

Thanks all for the input


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## ScreenFoo (Aug 9, 2011)

If you're interested in being associated with an industry group, look into the SGIA. Lots of good resources available.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

yeah, there's the ARA for trophies and awards, which at least gets featured in publications and advertisements, but basically anyone can get that 'seal of approval' for a fee. the problem is that it means absolutely nothing. it doesn't create a standard, and even if it did it would be a bogus standard because there's no way to possibly enforce it. and even if there were a way to enforce it, the worst that could happen is they take away your little ARA symbol on your webpage, which means nothing to anyone anyway. the idea behind someone getting one is the more 'professional associations/organizations' you belong to, the better it looks to a customer. 

i'd just as soon belong to the BBB, which is just another ridiculous organization who's seen its best daze come and go, but at least it's got *some* real recognizable aspects to it. and it's a lot more expensive, too, as a result. to me, though, belonging to it is asking for more trouble than it's worth for printing shirts.


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## mustangFWL (Feb 27, 2012)

So what I guess the real thing to do is just start printing and designing and creating a portfolio?


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

yep, unless you want to send me a check for approval for whatever reason.


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## taricp35 (Dec 10, 2008)

mustangFWL said:


> Thats what I figured too, but to become "certified" you just need to take one of their test which is free, and also as I was looking through their site, I found a few screen print dealers that were "certified" on their site as well. So i still dont know what to make of it.


What's a "certified" printer, and who gets to determine if a printer is certified? What certification or qualifications do they have to make that determination? I would have to agree with lben on this one....someone trying to carve out a niche to make some money. The only ones they would fool with this is a newbie. On their website they clearly state _"Its purpose is to provide a resource for screen printers for the exchange of information on screen printing technology"_, don't you get that here at TSF for free?

I have been printing for 6 years now and I am the owner of my own shop so by my standards I am more than certified. Why would anyone need them to tell them they are qualified to screen print? A bunch of crap IMO but each person must determine the value in it for themselves.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

like i said, being able to say, 'i belong to aspa,' sounds impressive to a person who won't consider that such 'organizations' are bogus. will it get you more business? doubtful.


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## HumbleShirts (Sep 7, 2007)

That test is stupid. REAL basic stuff.


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## Dkenzie1 (Sep 22, 2011)

Looks like a rip off to me. Only 1 person can determine if you are qualified for the job........ The customer.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

you have to have a license to sell a house, but not a car.

you have to have a license to groom a dog, but not to be a CEO whose incompetence affects thousands of workers.

you have to have a license to get married, but not to be a politician.


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## aspaUSA.com (Jan 5, 2010)

American Screen Printing Association would like to respond to this post. 

People wanting to get a job as a screen printer should have some minimum level of competency. ASPA certification provides recognition to screen printers, demonstrating their knowledge of the screen printing craft and sets a competency standard for those engaged in or planning to work in the field of screen printing. ASPA is the only organization that offers a screen printing competency exam.

The ASPA certification exam was developed by expert screen printers with years of experience working in professional screen printing shops. 

There are many schools throughout the country that are using the ASPA certification programs to help their students successfully find jobs in screen printing. 

Many people use the ASPA website to find a printer, supplier or other information. The ASPA website gets thousands of visitors each week. There are ASPA members throughout the USA and worldwide in over 30 countries.

Joining ASPA is free as are the certification exams. 

There are many people who find it valuable to join ASPA and become certified as our membership and certification grows each month.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

i see what you're attempting to accomplish, i think, and i don't necessarily disagree with the purpose. i just don't necessarily see the pressing need to hire someone with a 'certificate' that's likely to want more than the ten bucks an hour i'd want to pay a labourer because they went through some course. now, someone with a degree from the community college in town that actually teaches screenprinting, along with some design and computer skills, sure, that warrants a little more money. otherwise, it's mostly several menial jobs as far as i'm concerned, and anything requiring more skill or beyond the normal pail of basic screen printing i'd have to train them to do anyway. 

we're training a friend right now to do the basic stuff we do and he's picked it up pretty easily. the key is having a desire to do it, the willingness to get dirty, and the ability to do jobs that in and of themselves are far less complicated than the machines i'm required to learn at the factory i work in. 

so, i guess my point is that i see no point in 'certifying' someone, at least not at an entry level. perhaps if they knew advanced screen printing and how to use the computer....


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## D3L0C4T3D (Jan 23, 2012)

Lol, this is a big joke, pretty soon someone is going to do a cert for fry cooks. Most shops want to trajn their workers their way, I dint want your bad habitts in my shop. You tape up screens how I like them, not how you were taught in school, lol school. I hope no one buys into this nice try do but we dont need your seal of approval.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using T-Shirt Forums


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## taricp35 (Dec 10, 2008)

I think you should have started your response with In My Opinion......
The certification and competency exam is a bunch of hooey in my opinion which is why I stated in my previous post that each person has to see the value in this for themselves. I personally see none. JMO.
I am the expert in my shop and those that work for me were trained by me, so no need for them to focus on some bogus competency exam. I got my start in a local print shop hired by a temp agency. My first job was cleaning ink off screens and cleaning squeegees. I then moved up to sharpening squeegees. I then moved up to folding shirts coming off the dryer to loading the shirts onto the platens and finally after a few other jobs I learned to run the automatics. I learned that while on the job. You can't teach hands on experience, and some pseudo "certification" is not going to fool anyone that a person is qualified.


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## Fenrir (Mar 13, 2012)

While I understand the need for companies to hire experienced workers, and not have to train employees when they need to fill in for an employee they lost for whatever reason, I find it both sad and hilarious when I see a hiring sign up "experienced (whatever) needed!" ...that stays up for months and months and months. The local grocery store has a sign in the meat department that they only hire experienced meat slicers. This actually seems to be a permanent sign. Where the BLEEP are you supposed to learn if they never hire trainees? I guess they wait for other grocery stores to train people for them.


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## D3L0C4T3D (Jan 23, 2012)

Almost every shop I know has taken in a not ob off the street as a intern and trained them. So the screen printing world does not have too worry about findingguys with some know how if they look. Hell if anyone wants to pay for a cert I have 5 that I am selling right now, pm me for my paypal account and I will screen print you some up ASAP


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## BnC Custom Ink (Mar 4, 2012)

IMO..... I think most of you are missing the point. I am not affiliated with the ASPA in any way, but I fully see what they are trying to accomplish with there concept. They are trying to set a standard for basic competency and help others succeed in this industry. Maybe they are still a newer organization and have not reached national recognition yet, but they hardly deserve the harsh criticism that is being laid out here. The point of the classes/test is to demonstrate willingness to conform to industry standards. This is more like ASE certifications for auto techs. I was a mechanic for over 15 years, and many people came into the vairous shops that I worked in/owned, and some would respond to the "are you ASE citified?" with "I don't need a piece of paper to tell me how to work on cars." and not one of these people ever got hired. Getting any certification will only help you as a person. So this ASPA may be in its infancy but saying it's a scam and warning others away is ruthless attack on someone who seams to be trying to add something to our industry. 

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that we are mostly small businesses and not large multi-million dollar operations. Getting a cert has NEVER hurt someones chances of getting a job or their reputation.

The first sign of a great person is the willingness to learn new/different methods no matter how many years they have been hacking away in their garage, or how much of an expert they consider themselves.

And for the record, half of the questions here are answered with "take a class", now everyone is bashing ASPA for offering just that? Lets all remember that companys like Ryonet/Catspit also created a market where none existed before and we all bow to there knowledge and advice.

Sorry to rant but this thread hit a nerve......


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

comparing ASE certified mechanics to screen printers is ridiculous, sorry. for one, you actually have to take classes for ASE and pass a course in a real classroom situation. you can't do that online by watching a few videos. besides, there are plenty of screen printing classes you can take from a community college or tradeshow event, and those are the places that they should be approaching, not us except to advise people to take those courses that are approved by the industry itself or school. those are the only 'certifications' i would ever be interested in, and even then i'm still only going to pay you ten bucks an hour as a labourer, more if you have a graphic arts background, and if you had that background you probably wouldn't be asking for a screen printer position.

another problem is that there is no industry standard and it would be impossible to get people to adhere to that even if there was. being a mechanic is a job requiring years of training and paying your dues involving expensive tools and if you're in a shop *very* expensive equipment. on the other end, you could be making viable shirts for sale a couple of daze after you get your starter kit from ryonet. in other words, there is no standard because none is required. you're rather trying to compare a sous chef to a waiter here, and there's a vast amount of training and experience separating the two.

half of the questions here are answered with 'take a class'? really? i rarely, if ever, see that advice. you must be surfing different sub-forums than i am. 

if someone wants a real certification, take a class... at an accredited community college where they hand out actual degrees. 

in the trophy world, there's an 'organization' called the ARA (awards and recognition association). basically, you throw them a couple of bucks and they send you some newsletter every now and then, and you can use their logo on your business cards and web site. there's no standard to adhere to, and it would be pointless to even present one as people are going to do what they want the the they want. quality is what it is, depending entirely on the person making the product, and a certification isn't going to change that at all. 

like i said, i don't think there's anything wrong with the attempt, i just don't see the point anymore than people need a 'certification' to mow a yard, build a fence, roofing, or paint a house, and all those entail tricks of the trade and a certain level of training to do right, too. 

and why is ASE certification important? because so many people for so long have screwed the car repair industry up to the point where it became a consumer protection issue, prompting the creation of an organization. (also, ASE requires two years of experience. this is laughable, though, as my ASE teacher told us all in class just to simply lie about our 'qualifications.' apparently, most other applicants lie about it, too, and there's no background check being done, soooo.... btw, i took an auto electronics class, and while i could technically have gotten certified, i'm the last person you want even putting a fuse in.) is there a quality issue in the screen printing world? and even if there was, is it even important enough to worry about? 

there's just no point to it and, besides, there are already certificates of accomplishment/achievement from reputable, established entities.


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## BnC Custom Ink (Mar 4, 2012)

There is no classroom requirement for ASE, yes there is the work exp, but as you said most people lie, I did in 1995 when I got my first one. I carry every cert ASE offers for a gas-engine tech including L1 advanced, and X1 undercar, I got EPA and MACS certs as well as local community college certs. And the truth is, as you point out, they technically mean nothing. I have worked with un-certified guys who were true wizards at diagnostics, and fully certified guys who couldn't figure out a bulb installed wrong. However the willingness to get them and to be proud of yourself is the point!!! Fighter pilots mark their planes with kills, college football players sticker up their helmets with big plays, I have a chef coat(by the way I have a certified culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu Chicago also) that I print at the end of every job before I breakdown the job it looks like a NASCAR coat lol. The Point is be proud of who you are and what you do even if the certs mean little in the real world just having them and their silly newsletters connects us to each other and just might help out somewhere in the future. And for the record a cert is only as good as the people who attempt to acquire it. As far as the ability of an auto tech, you give them far too much credit. I think it does take skill to print, a bolt tightens to the right, and comes out when turned left, you have voltage or you don't, but pulling a squeegee the correct way takes lots of practice.


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## ScreenFoo (Aug 9, 2011)

I didn't see any classes or resources. That's why I mentioned the SGIA. 

And not to 'bash', but I hadn't really looked at the test until today, and it seems to me like some unusual statements are implied in the test--

If moire is an undesirable visual pattern that happens when halftoned screens overlap, is all halftoned sim process and four color process undesirable? 

Have you seen a light integrator that "controls" changes in light intensity? I have one that can change light intensity, but not for the purposes of exposure compensation. For that it changes the amount of time it exposes based on the light intensity detected.

A Newton is not a measure of screen tightness--per se, a Newton-centimeter is. With no measure of the sample distance, it's not properly quantified.


Just a couple pennies...


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

well, it was 20 years since i took that class. maybe it was different then or i remember it wrong. 

i didn't read the questions, but, jeez, it seems those are best resolved by hands-on application. the theory part is something anyone can read. that's just it, a certification is only paper ~ give me someone that can actually perform the job, and the only way you can do that is say, 'okay, you have a certification. here's three colour job. show me.' that is to say, a certification can get you into trouble if you don't know what you're doing.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

I totally agree there has to be some hands on demonstration. In 85 to 88 I got an associates degree in automotive went to work in a shop in 86 growing up working on vehicles there was no problem. There was 2 guy that went to class about a month or so and the book store sold The Guide to the ASE certifaction. They got the book took the test and had there paper in hand and dropped out. 1 got a job at the shop I was working at. He had his paper but always asking how to do something. Then in 91 I decided to go into HVAC. In 93 you had to get an EPA certificate. There were guy taking that test who never had work on an AC ever and getting their license. Now take for granted HVAC and Automotive are bad examples as you can easily kill yourself or your clients. Although not as dangerous letting a inexperienced guy in the screen shop unless you put him on the auto still can have some heavy financial recourse to you if you hire a person cause they have a paper.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

then you go downstairs to check on the guy and he's passed out from the discharge fumes that he forgot to vent, then you accidentally kill him trying to revive him and you have to hack his body up and bury the pieces around town. when it's all said and done, you've lost valuable production time.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

yea but he had his certification. Honestly I don't do discharge for the liability reasons. Even though I am 90% of the time the only one workin the shop. I guess I didn't think about all the chemicals but seriously. If someone want me to take a certifaction seriously there would have to be at least some shop time involved. I have already seen in other industries where long time creditable certifying agencies don't work

On the other hand keep a vat of acid around will save you a lot of time driving all over town thus not loosing shop time.


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## HumbleShirts (Sep 7, 2007)

sben763 said:


> on the other hand keep a vat of acid around will save you a lot of time driving all over town thus not loosing shop time.


###**eye roll**###


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## BnC Custom Ink (Mar 4, 2012)

ryan barker said:


> then you go downstairs to check on the guy and he's passed out from the discharge fumes that he forgot to vent, then you accidentally kill him trying to revive him and you have to hack his body up and bury the pieces around town. when it's all said and done, you've lost valuable production time.


you saw that????


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

yes, the acid is a viable way of body disposal, but the problem is the expense. it's one those things where you have to weigh the cost of buying acid/s and chemicals (and sometimes the activators) right now and might not need to ever use them versus lost production on a job that may or may not have a good margin. this is where having a deep freezer comes in handy, so you can disperse parts at your leisure and spread out over time. 

this reminds of the design i thought up awhile back that said 'certiffied screen printre' that was upside down, registration was way off, and it was terribly off-centre.


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

Yea but with acid there is no DNA. now I am starting to get some social media ideas for my design. Oh wait that would be anti social. You guys must watch all the reality crime shows like cold case file the first 48 and so like I do. I could never come up with these ideas on my own.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

what's funny/scary is i've never seen one of those shows in my life. i just... know things. i guess since i'm on a mission from dog, i've been given canine powers. hey, maybe that's where burying bones came from, ya think? hmm, never thought of that before....

you're right about the DNA thing, too. there are definitely pros and cons to each method, but you're probably right. still, the only people that will notice the average screen printer labourer missing is their grandma who they live with and the pot-smoking community, so i'm not going all lex luther over chris, er, a random screen printer guy.

for some of us, 'certification' means having our pictures up at the post office. 

hm, what would i call an anti-social network if i had to come up with a name...?


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

Ok this thread was my laugh for the day. I watch those shows because I am fascinated with human behavior and how some can just do the things they do. My wife on the other hand says I'm looking for ideas.


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## screenprinter1 (Jan 5, 2008)

I teach at one of the community colleges mentioned in several posts, and while I don't know much about the ASPA's certification, I do believe that a good industry wide certification could be worth something. I certify for other industries, and the best certifications in my opinion require both hands on training and some book work, they are also generally equipment based rather than process based. For example an employee could become M&R certified showing that they have competency on M&R equipment, and that could take as little as about 30 hours to complete. If I were to try and certify for an entire process like screen-printing, that would require much, much more time and hands on training. Probably more like 1500 hours. I owned one of the largest screen-printing and embroidery companies Utah for about 10 years, and had a potential employee showed me a certification that was basically a vocabulary test, I wouldn't have been that impressed. A 1500 hour certification on the other hand would have been impressive, especially if it were from an instructor or establishment that I was familiar with. 

Smaller certs on certain aspects of the process would be worth something as well I think... For example a 30 hour cert on screen-reclaiming could be worth a raise, so long as the money invested to obtain the cert produced results like the person taking the class comes back and can actually properly reclaim screens!


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## HumbleShirts (Sep 7, 2007)

Matt,

I think the consensus here is that this organization referenced in this thread is not really viable. There are MANY more HIGHLY accredited organizations that provide better skills training than a simple test. IMO, hands-on apprenticeship is the best way to move up in a screen print production environment.

I think the ASPA thing is just a quick money grab thing with no real affluence or standing anywhere in our industry.


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