- Team Starleaton and their TAFE trainers: (left to right) Ray Carrol, TAFE, Tom Leggatt, Clifton Schneider, Josh Eaton, Erin Leggatt, Ben Eaton, Ian Cleary, Inez Kalinowski and Paul Richards, TAFE.
- Team Starleaton and their TAFE trainers: (left to right) Ray Carrol, TAFE, Tom Leggatt, Clifton Schneider, Josh Eaton, Erin Leggatt, Ben Eaton, Ian Cleary, Inez Kalinowski and Paul Richards, TAFE.
Ben Eaton rolls up his sleeves to learn first hand what it takes for signage apprentices to become qualified in the dark arts at Sydney’s School of Printing.
It’s not often you see managing directors doing the hard yards of manual work but unusual tactics are required if the industry is to deal with the growing shortage of trained personnel hampering growth in the signage sector. Leading from the front, Ben Eaton enrolled his Starleaton executive team in a six-day Government-funded course at TAFE Ultimo as a first step towards radically transforming the skillsets of the entire sector.
Confronted with the necessity of undertansding the fundamentals of printing, construction, design and even car wrapping, the Starleaton team got stuck in, exchanging their computers and mobile phones for scalpels, pencils and power tools. It’s part of a grand design to help Starleaton customers solve their staff and skills shortages.
Eaton’s plan is to employ up to five apprentices at Starleaton to complete traditional three-year courses. As their expertise develops he wants to be able to share their skills with customers when required. “It’s something I’ve been working on for quite a while. We had to become qualified ourselves in order to supervise apprentices. I put it to the team and they loved the idea. We’re learning how the industry works from the ground up,” he said.
Team Starleaton will gain their Certificate 3 level of expertise when they complete the course. The idea is that the executive members will be able to talk the talk with future apprentices and will also be able to broaden the traditional education to include sales, marketing and management.
“The apprentices will be exposed to a wide range of printing companies. I see it as an incentive for them to stay the course, knowing they'll be able to find a role in different companies,” said Eaton. “It’s good for Starleaton and our customers as well as for the entire sector.”
The initiative of a supply-side company taking on apprentices is a radical departure from usual practice, but Eaton says both customers and the TAFE staff are excited. He maintains it’s incumbent on all parts of the industry to address the skills shortage.
His intention is to roll out the Starleaton Customer Assist programme nationally.