Page 12 - Print21 magazine Mar-Apr 2023

| FROM THE EDITOR |
Unity is strength
The new unified print industry employers’ association PVCA has delivered two big wins for the industry, and barely
before the new year has got going. Is it any coincidence that now we
have one unified association good results have started happening? We don’t think so.
Win number one sees print industry apprentices now back
on the government’s Priority List, which means funding for both them and the print businesses taking them on. The importance of being on the list cannot be overstated. In the competition for scarce young talent that all industries are engaged in, it is clear that youngsters will,
by and large, veer towards those industries that won’t leave their apprenticeship saddled with debt.
Employers too will be more inclined to take young people if some of the cost burden is borne by government. It has to be said that the current education funding philosophy in Australia is
a disaster. Treating
colleges and
universities as profit
making businesses
is the antithesis
of what should be
happening. Not
only does it saddle
young people with
“Countries which treat education as an investment in young people, and in their society and economy, are the ones that are outperforming. In the print industry the two clear examples are Germany and Israel. ”
huge debt, it lowers the standards, for what institute is going to dare to fail students who have spent tens of thousands of dollars, knowing that a high failure rate will deter the next wave of customers/students.
Talking of coincidence, it is also no accident that countries which treat education as an investment, in
young people, and in their society and economy, are the ones that are
outperforming. In the print industry the two obvious examples are Germany and Israel.
Education at all levels is free, which means
standards are high, and the outcomes
are there for all to see; pioneering,
innovative, empowered
young people, delivering the
goods.
Win number two for the PVCA was in the Voice referendum.
When government wanted to ditch the requirement for a printed pamphlet, baulking at the cost in public, and privately not wanting to see the no argument presented in equivalence to yes, PVCA swung into action. Lobbying government, the opposition and other stakeholders, the decision was reversed in a matter of weeks. PVCA cannot
claim all the credit, but it can claim a large part. Now some 9.3 million multipage pamphlets will be printed and mailed – a great result for the industry, and for those who are not digitally enabled, which ironically includes significant numbers of the indigenous population. Only print can reach all parts.
Unity is indeed proving to be a real strength.
Wayne Robinson – Editor
EDITOR:
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12 MARCH/APRIL 2023
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