Safe to join the printing industry - Open letter from James Cryer
Last week the doors opened a little wider to admit – and even welcome – a new breed to the printing industry. It may be too melodramatic to say that history was made, but nonetheless, it was an historic event. For the first time in the history of our industry, the existence of digital print was acknowledged as a legitimate, vital and now permanent part of the landscape – taking its place alongside offset, not as a poor-relation but as an equal.
The event was the pre-launch of the Digital Print Resources project, put together.by venerable industry stalwart, Bob Sneddon, under the auspices of the NSW Office of Education and Sydney TAFE. Ricoh also donated resources and the function was kindly hosted by Look Print, at their Leichhardt facility. ((For details, visitwww.training,nsw.gov.au/skillsonline ).
This event, modest of itself, ushers in a new era for the printing industry, which has been struggling with a number of challenges of late, not the least of which has been how to attract and retain young entrants into the industry. For too long we’ve presented a predominantly “offset” bias to our training, with our antiquated apprenticeship system anchored somewhere in the 19th century.
Today the emphasis is on flexible learning, onsite or offsite, tailor-made to the student’s needs and online driven. This new curriculum, just launched, fulfills these criteria – but it does something more important: it gives young kids choices in print.
Without putting too fine a point on it, offset is here to stay but it’s a “mature” process, not sexy or inviting to the impatient youth of today. Digital functionality with its infinite options, capabilities and endlessly-evolving potential offers a more exciting career choice to the young school-leaver of today. And this course delivers just that!
While this is not meant to be an anti-offset diatribe, it must be said we’ve clung to offset for too long as the one true path to righteousness and salvation. We’ve regarded it as synonymous with print, to the point it’s crowded-out other optional processes such as flexography, screen-printing and more recently digital printing – both small- and large-format, all of which have been treated as Mickey Mouse processes not to be considered seriously.
Don’t worry, this is all a perfectly natural evolutionary process that many industries go through: consider aviation and the way it clung onto propellers so to speak and went into denial about the benefits of jet-engines.
We as an industry are just behaving in a perfectly normal way, delaying change until it’s inevitable – not acting before we have to. Sadly however, we still lag in other areas: we don’t readily admit or encourage membership of digital-print centres into our traditional organisations. We still brand our associations with names like the Litho Institute which seems deliberately designed to scare away young children, women, and virtually all of our digital colleagues. Not a bad achievement! And we’re still the last bastion of male dominated industries.
But getting back to the launch of this new course. The fact that digital print has now acquired its own dedicated curriculum, reminds us of the diversity of our industry - that it is not one monotheistic bloc, it is a multicultural nation made up of numerous tribes – labels, packaging, mailing, signage, books, magazines – and the list is expanding, not shrinking (as some people would have you believe).
Our new motto should be strength in diversity!
And if only we could present this diversity to young school-leavers we’d have one of the most exciting career choices on offer! What other industry offers such a range of experiences and can offer such a range of functional roles – designer, corporate communications, multi-media coordinator, brand-management, direct mailing expert – print can now even “print” three-dimensional objects. What other industry can do that?
Thank you Bob and all the others that put this package together. Hey kids, it’s now safe to enter through that great portal of the printing industry. Offset is not the only game in town – you now have choices. You now have a career!
So school-leavers: Why you should consider a career in print –
We need enterprising and keen young people like you to join our industry.
Printing is a cleaner/greener, more exciting place to be these days, now that it offers exciting new roles such as digital printing, packaging design, marketing communications, and everything from junior customer service roles to senior account manager business development roles (looking after big companies’ design, print, POS, branding and promotional requirements).
It also includes roles in signage and display (such as the roll-out of a bank’s new corporate logo and branch signage). And vehicle wrap – did you know all trucks and commercial vehicles are not painted but wrapped in a thin film of printed material?
Print can also include career opportunities in security printing – don’t forget bank notes are printed. Have you ever thought about how bar-codes work, and how they get on the package? They all have to be printed!
And as we walk through shopping centres, and visit our bank and go to sporting events and theatres, who prints the tickets, the brochures, the posters, the take-away food packaging? We don’t always see the printing but it’s there on the buildings, the bus shelters, on the packaging, the sides of trucks. Printing is everywhere.
We receive material in the mail – from banks, insurance companies, local businesses, your local council.
Printing is one of the biggest industries in Australia, but we don’t realise it. Digital printing – including roles in pre-press, printing plus a whole host of technical roles all point to an industry that offers unlimited scope for advancement.
Printing is everywhere, giving us more options, more choices, more information, more entertainment – and even more knowledge.
Anything that helpful may be worthwhile considering as a career option. Why not call into a local printing company and explore the wonderful world of print?
James Cryer
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Regards,
James Cryer
JDA PRINT RECRUITMENT (Sydney)
JDA PRINT RECRUITMENT (Melbourne)
282 Victoria Ave,
Suite 4, 17 Heatherdale Rd,
Chatswood, NSW 2067
Ringwood, Vic 3134
Ph: 02 9904 6222
Ph: 03 9874 1582
Mob: 0408 291 508
Mob: 0413 055 834
Email: james@jdaprintrecruit.com.au
Email: chris@jdaprintrecruit.com.au
Visit our website at : www.jdaprintrecruit.com.au