The Productivity Commission has released its five-year report, with damning results for apprenticeship numbers, dropping to 275,000 from 500,000 since 2012, a trend which the PIAA says the print industry is feeling.

With apprenticeships plummeting close to 50 per cent in five years, Andrew Macaulay, CEO, Printing Industries calls for a national apprenticeship system, to simplify the time consuming and costly state-based system.

"This fundamental document will govern the political priorities and policies for the next 2-5 years, and I am thrilled that education has been highlighted as a key driver of prosperity and benefit to all Australians.

"The acknowledgement by the Commission that vocational training is in what they term disarray aligns to what we observe in the printing, packaging and allied sectors. Investment by all governments is well down and the apprenticeship system is in crisis. Overall, apprenticeship numbers have collapsed from 500,000 to 275,000 in the last five years. These are lost jobs and lost opportunities for young people and our industries.

"We urgently need a national system. Currently, apprenticeship skills, qualifications and timeframes vary from state to state and territory to territory and businesses have to deal with eight different jurisdictions. This is costly, time consuming and frustrating. To regain our international competitiveness as a nation and secure the jobs of today and tomorrow for our people, we need to act in a nationally coordinated way.

"We need a national campaign to promote apprenticeships to young people as an exciting path into a job and career.

"The Printing Industries Association of Australia welcomes the Commission's call for a new policy model. There are many areas that are not working. These must be addressed urgently before Australia is left behind.”

The review is the first of its kind to assess the factors and influences that may affect Australia's economic performance over the medium term, in order to advise where priorities should lie if we are to enhance national welfare.

Among its results, it found that from 2003-04 to 2015-16, the gains to market sector GDP from doing things better have been nearly zero.

The Productivity Commission notes that Australia’s education system is a mixed bag of excellence and mediocrity.

“Slipping school results and concerns about teaching quality raise questions about how Australians will adapt to the wave of changes in the economy over the coming decades.

“The vocational education and training system is in disarray.

“It will not be too long before universities will be the key vehicle for skill formation, yet their teaching function plays a subordinate role to their research role, and the outcomes for many graduates are poor.

‘Better teaching quality, re-building the VET sector, genuine options for acquiring new skills as people switch jobs and careers, using new technological models for educating people, and creating teaching-only universities are just a few of the many changes that need to be made.”

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