A two-year project examining the relationships between digital technology usage and printing industry skills development has been launched in Queensland.
The project, which is likely to be indicative of industry trends across Australia, is being project managed by Printing Industries Queensland with support from the Department of Education and Training (DET) under the Queensland Government’s Skills Formation Strategy.
According to Printing Industries, the project will focus on the direct and indirect effects of digital technology uptake across the industry and work closely with employers and other industry stakeholders to develop a set of strategies to address future workforce development challenges.
Ashley Petfield, president of Printing Industries Queensland said that the rationale for a holistic approach to workforce issues enabled effective skilling to occur on an industry-wide, rather than on an individual or group of businesses, basis.
He says, “Being selected by DET to manage the project reflects the peak industry body status of the association and is a timely opportunity for the industry to plan for a future in which workforce needs are expected to present a significantly different set of challenges to those being dealt with today.
“Having access to a skilled workforce has always been among the major management issues for the printing industry. With the rapidly increasing uptake of digital technologies we need to have strategies in place to ensure we have a workforce that is skilled and work-ready well into the future to help the industry benefit from these new technologies.”
Petfield has been appointed chairman of the Queensland industry leaders’ group that will be working to address the issues emerging from the research and to begin the process of developing workforce strategies to take the industry into the future. He said the outcomes of the project would be as relevant across Australia as they will in Queensland.
The project will be headed by David Hoban, who is well-known in the Queensland printing industry having spent 10 years in business development with Printing Industries. Hoban has also worked closely with printing businesses in apprenticeships and traineeships, and has developed recognition of prior learning (RPL) kits for several trade areas for the Queensland Government.
Petfield continues, “David's close involvement with the Sustainable Green Print (SGP) program in Queensland will ensure that sustainability issues for the industry are included in future workforce development strategies.
“An important part of this project has been engagement with industry for background research using interviews with Queensland employers and stakeholders. This will be used to guide us on a range of issues, particularly in regard to how future workforces will be affected by the rapid uptake of digital technologies.”
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