The Printing Industries Association of Australia (PIAA) is in the final stages of establishing a Registered Training Organisation.
The PIAA has secured a leader of “the highest calibre” in Joan Grace, who leaves her role as chief executive of PrintNZ to relocate to Melbourne and head up the training organisation.
Her first priority will be bridge the skills gap in Victoria, where training has been left in limbo after the decision by top college RMIT to shut down its print department.
Susan Heaney, president of the PIAA and managing director of Gold Coast-based Heaney Performers in Print, said Grace’s appointment was a major coup for the fledgling training provider.
“She revolutionised training for the New Zealand industry and created a model that is the envy of organisations locally and internationally,” said Heaney.
The PIAA said the new training organisation would succeed where others have failed by putting the quality of training and the needs of employers and students ahead of profits.
Bill Healey, chief executive of the PIAA, said: ” It is great opportunity for the industry to take charge of its own destiny in regards to training.
“What is evident is given the pressures on TAFEs to streamline their operation, there are no guarantees that what happened at RMIT won’t happen around the country.”
He said that “there has been a view – not just in our sector but more broadly – that TAFEs have been unresponsive to the needs of businesses”.
The new body would be able to tailor training to employers’ needs, he said, pointing to the demand for digital print skills.
Healey expected that the new training body would also prove a profitable venture for the PIAA. “We are not going to lose money on this and hopefully it becomes a revenue source to enable us to reduce fees.”
Victoria is the first focus but ultimately the training organisation would resolve skills shortages across the country, said Healey.
“In three years’ time, I’d like to think we will have lot more apprentices and what they do in terms of their learning will be more effective, more interesting and more beneficial to the business and the student and that will be doing their programme under the guidance of an industry-based company that Joan Grace oversees.”
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