Print as an industry struggles to get young people involved. This is not a new phenomenon either, as editions of Australian Printer from the early 90s show the same concerns around a lack of young people joining the industry.
Talking to printers, associations, training providers, and young people, there are clear issues of awareness, public perception of print as a heavy, industrial trade, and the oft repeated refrains about digital media replacing the need for printed products.
The misconceptions of print are only one part of the problem however, as training opportunities become fewer, and businesses either cannot find apprentices, or fail to see the value in hiring them.
But what happens when you have a business that wants to hire an apprentice, one who wants to join that business and learn the trade, but for whom no available mechanism for them to get an apprenticeship?
Over the next few months, Australian Printer will take a deep dive into the realities of getting print apprentices state-by-state, starting with South Australia, which discontinued its TAFE print machinist qualifications last year.
After selling the majority of its print equipment in September of last year, TAFE SA has only a Konica Minolta press, Horizon binder, and a Polar guillotine.
It still offers Print Communications courses, along with graphic design. Essentially, it can teach students up to prepress, but not beyond.
There is no current system or replacement arrangement for apprentices outside of the city.
The only place to get a qualification in operating printing presses in South Australia is through private provider Print Training Australia, part of the Spectra network. Being based in Adelaide, printers from outside of the major city cannot afford to pay the high costs involved bringing in trained professionals to their shops.
This divide in opportunities between rural South Australia and the capital city has left roughly a dozen apprentices without a formal education process, according to SA’s Rob Hansen, who sits on the South Australian Industry Skills Council, also running Naracoorte business Hansen Design and Print.
Hansen has been unsuccessfully trying to place his apprentice, Nick Lacey, in formal education over a year.
In his words, “It has been more than12 months and not one thing has been done about it. My apprentice, and others in South Australia have not been able to start a print apprenticeship because there is no training provider.
“It seems to be that if you are in the city, one of the training providers can start the apprenticeship process. In rural South Australia, where I am and others are, we cannot.
“The training provider said to me straight out that they cannot afford to send someone to train my apprentice, which is total garbage. The training provider needs to be able to offer the services, and they are not prepared to. They are walking away from rural printing businesses in South Australia.”
Subsidies not offered in South Australia
It is expensive to provide workplace training in rural areas of South Australia. Some parts of the state may only have a single printer, with one apprentice.
Jenny Rushton, CEO, Spectra, the owners of Print Training Australia, explains, “We are different to TAFE in that we only do workplace training. We do not have an offsite facility, we work in conjunction with printing companies in South Australia and other states, to deliver training in the workplace so that we are not pulling them away.
“We go to all regional areas of South Australia, but because of the regional locations of some of the printers, it may need to be one-to-one training, as opposed to a group of printers.
“From a cost-effectiveness perspective, it is not viable, so that is where we need further assistance from the South Australian government to deliver that training, it would need to be subsidised.
“In other states the State Government assists with difficult to get to locations to deliver one-to-one training, there is usually a regional loading of some sort.”
Securing funds
A total of $203m was promised to TAFE SA in September last year, coming from both the state and federal coffers, with the $100m Skilling South Australia investment matched by the Federal Government to the tune of $103m.
With the division of that money still to be fully determined, the AMWU has been working with the PIAA and TAFE SA to secure funds for a new training program, the Skilling South Australia Print Project.
It is headed up by the AMWU’s Gordon Wilson, who managed to draw together 30 students from a pool of 220 at short notice, first being notified of the funds December 21, then having to wait for
TAFE to open on January 30, before starting the course this month.
Wilson explains, “We had been in talks with the Department of Industry Skills in South Australia, to start the project, which focuses on ex-school leavers. Starting on March 7, the students do six units, three core, and three digital, as a pre-educational offering.
“TAFE SA will run it, but it is not a trade certificate, it is a skill-set, and the Department of Education wanted it completed by the end of the financial year.
“The $203m in funding is supposed to bring 20,000 apprentices over four years, across all industries. We are hoping that if we are successful with the project we can grow from that.
“With the 30 students, half have had contact with the industry either through labour hire, or worked as a casual with printing companies. I placed an ad across Seek, Linkedin, and others, we received 220 applications, and we whittled that down to 30.
“We hear that we printers cannot find anybody, but 220 people are keen to get a head start, doing an unpaid course to upskill and find work.
“We have also had reassurances from the companies that are giving them experience, that if they are the right person, they will offer them work.”
The course will be run in the small remaining print room at TAFE SA, with the 30 students split into three groups, each getting at least five days of work experience over the life of the project. So far, 22 companies have expressed interest in taking people on.
Wilson says, “I am more than happy for any companies that want to be involved to contact me. The more companies we have involved, the better the outcomes will be for everybody.
“We have a full-mixture. We have Multi-Color South Australia, Eagle Press, a small 3D digital printing company, Fusetec, which produces practice human body parts for medical students.
“Print Training Australia can service the Metro and greater area, but regional areas are just too expensive. Our previous dealings Spectra on the Future Print project were successful, they really believe in what they are doing, as they are from the industry.
“We are genuinely hoping that by giving TAFE these 30 students, and money through the Department of Education, we can help provide pressure to get education back in TAFE SA, so people have that choice again.
“I first got wind of TAFE SA shutting down their print education seven to eight months before it was happening, but they were keeping it under wraps at that point.
“By then it was too late, it was a foregone conclusion. None of us can understand why that’s a thing.
“We never even found out why they did it.”
Campaigning for Nick Lacey
Back in Naracoorte, Rob Hansen’s determination to solve rural apprentice availability issues has seen him nominated to the South Australian Industry Skills Council, the body which determines and updates training packages alongside industry to ensure that it remains relevant. He says, “I am very determined to get a result for my apprentice and others in the state. This has been dragging on, and the state government needs to do something about it."
Victoria-based Holmesglen TAFE currently takes Tasmanian students, following the collapse of print training in the southern state, but has no current plans in motion to take on SA students.
Paul Ross, program director, Holmesglen, explains, “For us to have User Choice, Holmesglen would need to follow the South Australian government's guidelines to have those applications in the state. In Tasmania, there was no provider, we put our hands up to take the training for the state. That was made simpler as Holmesglen already taught other trades in the state.
“We would like to see TAFE SA get back up on its feet, and give training in whatever shape or form there is. If there are gaps, and they cannot do anything, maybe we can fill that in. But I do not think Holmesglen should be doing all the training Australia-wide, alongside Ultimo in Sydney, that is not good for the industry.
“The industry is its own worst enemy at times, people do not put apprentices on, and try to stick to what they have got. But they get older every year, and eventually will have to retire.”
Hansen says, “If we can get South Australia to do something along the same lines, that is great. I respect that there are not large numbers of printers and apprentices in rural areas, but all they have to do is marry with Holmesglen and the problem would be solved.
“We are fortunate that we have great tradespeople that apprentices can learn from, they are learning basic skills. But they need to sit with an external source, and learn a wide range of skills. You find that rural apprentices tend to have a much wider knowledge base, because they have to be across all aspects of print.”
Hansen has a successful record with mentoring apprentices, with his fourth-year print apprentice Taylah O’Brien finishing second at the biennial WorldSkills awards in 2018, beating out a fellow SA competitor, Chloe Rudd of Print DNA. Both O'Brien and Rudd are based in regional areas, and were able to study through TAFE before it defunded print.
Hansen admits, “We cannot expect TAFE SA to go out and buy all the equipment again, it is not feasible for a handful of apprentices. But they have to put something into place so the 12 or so apprentices seeking to start can have a legally binding apprenticeship. They are still running the graphic design courses, but everything else is in limbo for now.
“I am excited to be part of the Industry Skills Council, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can get something across the line.”
Work still needs to be done in South Australia to secure the future of print education outside of the capital. Rural printers are shortchanged when it comes to apprentices, and a clear, well-funded policy solution will be needed to change that.
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