Bill Healey will speak on the ‘demographic tidal wave’ facing print workforces, and whether apprenticeships can fill the gap, at the upcoming Future Forum conference.
The outgoing PIAA chief executive is scheduled to present the half-hour seminar at 2.30pm on the first day of the newspaper publisher’s conference, held in Sydney on September 10-11.
Healey says the presentation will discuss whether there is a future for apprenticeships as the industry undergoes rapid change, and if so what they will look like and how publishers can prepare their workforce.
“It will raise the issue of workforce planning for newspaper printing given how the industry is evolving,” he says.
“With an ageing workforce, publishers have to consider how they will make sure they have the skills to produce newspapers and their other products into the future.
“This demographic tidal wave means there will be a substantial decline in the number of people able to do the job, so there needs to be a plan to bring more people into the industry.”
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Healey says the forum is a good opportunity for publishers, and others in the printing industry, to prepare to adjust their workforce strategies to meet today’s challenges.
“All industries face the challenge of preparing workers for a rapidly changing world. In print this is usually done with apprenticeships,” he says.
“We need to consider whether they are still relevant in course content and structure and if it is still reasonable to not continue to do additional learning after an apprenticeship.”
Healey says he will draw on the experience of Future Print, including on-the-job and classroom training balance, competency-based rather than time-based learning, fast tracking apprentices, and the importance of on-job mentoring.
“We are going to need different people in the future as print evolves, and the industry needs to make a commitment to sustaining itself,” he says.
The biggest annual newspaper industry conference in the Asia Pacific brings together hundreds of news and advertising executives from around the world to discuss issues facing the business.
Other speakers in the four-hour print and production session include Marcus Hooke from News Corp, Brian Rock from The Newspaper Works, Tania Gordon from Australian Newspaper Publishers, Martin Okkes from manroland, and Sean Tait from Fairfax.
The conference also includes the Panpa newspaper awards, at which Fairfax’s North Richmond factory was named the top print centre in the region last year.
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