Page 60 - Print21 magazine Mar-Apr 2023

| ASSOCIATIONS | PVCA
PVCA brings apprentices back
Kellie Northwood, CEO of
The Print and Visual Communication Association, shares how the peak body managed to pull the industry together to get the government to put print apprentices back on the Priority List
– a great result for all.
PVCA has just announced the successful reappointment
of our industry apprentices for the print and signage
industry sectors onto the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List (AAPL). This followed twelve months of rigorous lobbying to ensure
our industry, members and new apprentices can receive government subsidies and programme support across our apprentices.
It was the first time since the establishment of the apprentice priority listing and skills council that the print and signage industries had been removed from government recognition, and for
an industry already impacted by an ageing workforce, struggling with skilled labour placement and local manufacturing pressures, this was a significant blow.
The first removal was in 2021 when the government struck off seven Awards from the list, then in 2022, struck the complete
list of nine industry apprentice courses from the AAPL. This led
to the printers and industry being unable to claim government wage subsidy support for apprentices, as
well as limiting apprentices’ access across various
claims to payments
and other supports
to assist their studies.
We immediately appealed for a discretionary ruling
from the relevant minister, Brendan O’Connor, and the Department
to have the industry reassessed
in May last year. The minister, unfortunately, declined to intervene, and the signatory stakeholders did not feel it was a priority project. This left the PVCA no option but to lobby further into the department, and engage opposition channels where applicable to assist in pushing this through for reinstatement.
To say it was an easy journey would be inaccurate; myself and Charles Watson, GM – IR, Policy
& Governance at PVCA, were at times exasperated by the process, stakeholder, and departmental feedback. They held that there was ‘no shortage’ and a ‘soft’ future demand for occupations in our industry. The Department assessed our need by searching across seek. com.au and, finding no print apprentice job advertisement, therefore deduced that there was no need for apprentices in the industry.
We vehemently rejected the Department’s assessment formulas, calling on it to take the opportunity
to collect, and submit, industry specific data. This was granted and the PVCA submission outlined the
growth across packaging, labels, digital and other
sectors, challenging the Department’s assessment
criteria.
Still the
Department was not satisfied.
Determined to rectify this issue, and armed with
permission to proceed through
our own data collection, an
Kelly Northwood, CEO, PVCA
analysis of the methodology was applied to a member survey, and the Industry Skills Survey was prepared. The Department then advised we would be required to collect the data across the Christmas period and submit on 3 January.
We sighed; printers are frantically busy in the lead up to Christmas, and the last thing on their minds will be to answer industry surveys.
However, our members did
not fail us, and again I want to personally thank each and every one of you who did submit information across a very busy period. Your time and submission got our industry over the line, and we could not have achieved what we did without you.
The PVCA Industry Skills Survey revealed that 76 per cent of printers in Australia had at least two job vacancies, and that 67.5 per cent
of these jobs had been vacant for more than eleven weeks. Of these 58 per cent are for Print Machinists and Finishers, two of the first occupations to be removed.
All data clearly met the mandate under the Department’s criteria for the nine apprenticeship courses to sit on the AAPL. We made it.
The AAPL now has 111 occupations including nine specific to the print industry, ensuring printers and new apprenticeships are now able to apply for apprenticeship related wage subsidies and other related incentives that may be available to priority apprenticeship related occupations.
The next commitment from the PVCA is to work with Jobs and Skills Australia, the National Skills Commission, various Industry Skills Councils, and various federal government committees and departments so as to overcome a range of industry skill and training related issues.
To members and the industry, we need you. Your data, your insights. Together we form a powerful industry lobbying group, united we are stronger and can achieve these results. This is the first for 2023, I look forward to reporting more.
60 MARCH/APRIL 2023
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