Skill shortage looms, government to get tough – news commentary by Andy McCourt

“I think it is good if government uses its purchasing power to improve the culture on training,” he told the Financial Review. “It is acknowledging there are businesses that train, competing against businesses that don’t.”

Hardgrave sees businesses getting more involved in education and training establishments, to prevent “training for training’s sake” and engaging employers more at bedrock level for their future skills pool. For the printing industry, this can only mean that industry leaders will need to be on boards of governors and TAFE advisory committees and, since printing is a significant government expenditure, will need to demonstrate commitment in order to be favoured in the tender process.

Prime Minister John Howard identified the chronic skills shortage and training as a top priority during his successful fourth-term campaign, and has allocated $108 million to a national training plan.

Not everyone approves of the government’s record on training. National Secretary of the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union, Peter Tighe was moved to speak out against the Howard Government’s handling of training before the election, saying: “TAFE itself has been starved of funding as money is poured into private sector training providers who are commercially motivated to offer traineeships which provide training in the shortest time possible. The casualty is the traditional full trade apprenticeships. The result is a chronic skills shortage.”

RMIT School of Printing manager Robert Black states in his department’s capability document: “At RMIT we believe that the future of the printing and graphic arts industry is in the hands of those being trained today. Consequently, while technology and systems are continually changing our training programmes develop transferable skills that prepare people for the twenty-first century.”

Apprenctices speak out

Queensland’s Graphic Communications Training Board commissioned a no-holds – barred survey of industry training in 2002, conducted by the Callan Consulting Group. ( full report can be read on - www.trainandemploy.qld.gov.au/client/resources/about/research_publications/reports_research/pdf/printing_graphic.pdf

Some comments by apprenticeships and graduates themselves are revealing, such as:

“I have weighed up the pros and cons of being an apprentice in the graphics industry and I feel that this apprenticeship is a stepping stone to greater and better things in the industry. Some days at work are filled with tedious tasks and jobs which in many ways do not befit my skills. I feel that my skills are not being used to my full potential.

"My supervisor has an attitude that, since he has been with the company 12 years he can fill his day with (using the computer) instead of setting tasks for us apprentices. Then we are made to make boxes and coffee. It’s as if the supervisor has an underlying scheme to restrict the training we receive out of fear that his employment would cease if we learn the nitty-gritty stuff. But every time I get the courage to confront the matter, I fear losing my job.

“I am about to attend my final block of TAFE in a few weeks with teachers who dress in 70s clothes and think like they’re in the 70s. Everything is out of date and not relevant to what we do at work, and frankly a waste of time. There definitely is a need for some form of overhaul over many aspects of the apprenticeship training scheme in the Graphic Arts.”

And this:
“In all honesty I hated my job as a trainee. I’m glad I finished as I am trying to get back into Uni next year and get a degree, but I will never work in that industry again.”

Not all were negative, but the ‘stepping stone’ theme recurs:
“The knowledge I have gained by being an apprentice was invaluable. Without the training I would not be in the position of sales estimator/marketing officer I am in today. Every step has been a positive one in my career in the printing industry.”

Apprentice-shy printers

A NSW source involved in printing industry training and development told me: “ There definitely is a skills shortage right now for machinists and binders. We don’t know where they have all gone – as businesses close you would think they’d become available but some go out of the industry, some opt for early retirement but where the rest are, we can’t say. Many printers are reluctant to take on apprentices and if they do, they prefer third or fourth year people who can work the presses but be paid less.

“We need to blend more IT skills into print communications training. There will be a need for traditional mechanical-based machinists for a long time yet, but digital presses, the internet and other IT skills need to be taught too. Some say we should overhaul the entire apprenticeship system. If not, we’ll be bringing in skilled people from Europe all over again, as we tend to do every ten years or so.”

MY CALL

The whole training and apprenticeship system needs an overhaul. Bigger printers are still advertising for apprentices but a modern generation ‘Y’ trainee can not be treated like a job-hungry baby-boomer in the 1960s. There are a lot of ‘cooler’ occupations than printing, with its current image anyway.

Economic rationalism dictates that we will not see a return to carte-blanche taxpayer-funded training for our industry. Business has to take a stakeholding, but at the same time has to learn sometimes unfamiliar philosophies such as social responsibility, investing for the greater good and patience beyond the quarterly report.

Many supervisors are without the appropriate communication and people skills to teach young people and yet they are ‘given’ them to turn into the printers of tomorrow. Teaching is one of the most demanding skills on the planet and, like parenting, can be trying but perseverance always pays dividends. Let the teachers teach.

Many of the reports from apprentices themselves indicate that we are letting our young people down. Whipping-boy apprentices and the attitudes that perpetuate this culture should be illegal. Replace this with respect, education, understanding, holistic development, training and more training.

A prominent Sydney printer told me last week, upon my observing his highly benevolent and dignified approach to staff and trainees, told me last week: “I worked for assholes most of my life, I’m not going to be one now.”

RMIT has perhaps the best print training facility in Australia and many students come from overseas, mainly Asia, to gain diplomas, viewing Australian training as something special.

But we have an image problem at home. Unless we address it, we’ll attract fewer and fewer young people to the machinery-based side of printing, and then the call will go out around the world again, “Skilled printers needed in Australia – apply for a new life now.”