A couple of recent letters and articles in the trade press have prompted me to pen a few words from the comfort of the retirement couch. The most recent was the article on the move from the current purpose built Morningside campus to Southbank in Brisbane.
It was suggested that $90 million worth of real estate was the driving force. In New South Wales we gave the 1960 purpose-built Ultimo site to the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The buildings have since been demolished and Graphic Arts dispersed to other older buildings.
What makes writing this article difficult is the lack of available data, due largely to the dismantling of the national training network that was established in the early 1990s. What we do know is that we have 50 perc ent or less people in formal training arrangements than we had ten years ago. On last available data they had more people in training in New Zealand than in Australia.
The National Printing Industry Training Council (NPITC) has not been operational for approximately three years and the State network of Training Councils that NPITC co-ordinated severely curtailed and isolated or disbanded. NPITC’s only recent activity was to fund a report, from accumulated funds for an analysis of the 2006 Census data.
Skill training in Australia was revolutionised with the formation of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) with the agreement of state, territory and national governments. ANTA has since been disbanded and responsibly transferred back to State and Commonwealth bureaucracies and mega Training Councils that seem largely ineffective.
Interestingly, both national Liberal and Labor parties are currently pushing for national consistency and curriculum in the school sector. The national consistency, for training in the printing and graphic arts industry, was achieved in 1999 with national acceptance of the first Industry Training Package. This package defined the competences that the industry needed and how they are grouped for qualifications and assessed for recognition. This Training Package was revised in 2005. State and Territories also agreed on a common framework for the delivery and accreditation of training and training providers.
The new training framework provided for a much more flexible training approach that was enshrined in New South Wales legislation with the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Act 2001. The mix of on-the-job and off-the-job training is now negotiable between employer and recognised training provider. Each apprentice should now have an individualised training plan that maximises their skill development. Industry has what it said it wanted – – a much more individualised and flexible approach to training.
Ironically, the response from industry has been to greatly reduce the intake of young people into the industry. The recent Census report confirmed that we have an ageing and diminishing production workforce. Demonstrably, we need fewer production workers with the technology and productivity of new equipment but also we need skilled young people to maximise this productivity.
Employers currently report increased difficulty in recruiting suitable young people. Some states have been funding entry level pre-vocational training, but these have been curtailed, and in New South Wales we could not attract sufficient applicants to operate.
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