The PIAA is kicking off a two-year training program for print firm owners in the potentially more ambitious second phase of the $11m Future Print programme.
The Business Transformation Project aims to fortify print businesses against industry turbulence by giving the printers the skills and technical knowledge they need to transition their businesses into the market of the future.
The government-funded project has space for 350 businesses over the next two years and includes leadership briefings, industry benchmarking, business diagnostics, individual business reviews, facilitated workshops, one-on-one business mentoring and subsidised training.
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It begins with a series of two-hour leadership briefings on August 14 to September 12 in Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth that printers can already register for on the Future Print website.
PIAA member services general manager Peter Mansfield says printers will get the most out of the programme if they register early.
“The first stage is an opportunity for business owners to ‘dip their toes in the water’ – to understand the framework they will need to work within, to formulate the right questions to ask for their own businesses and to start to form a clearer picture of where they will fit in the industry of the future,” he says.
“Businesses that decide they want to participate in the broader programme will then be able to move on to obtain their own customised ‘business snapshot’ which will give them an important overview of their business and an assessment of their current position against national benchmarks.”
As the two-year programme progresses, Mansfield says Future Print will run facilitated workshops to provide businesses with specialist diagnostic tools to help them assess the ongoing viability of the business and identify new areas of potential.
“From there, businesses can apply for access to subsidised training which will allow them to upskill their staff to meet future challenges,” he says.
One-on-one mentoring with a group of six independent business advisors, led by innovation and business transformation expert Allan Ryan, will also help businesses to work through the findings of the analysis.
Ryan is an adjunct professor at UTS Business School and an executive director of the Hargraves Institute, which was formed to help Australian companies become more innovative by creating and promoting collective wisdom in that area.
He says the advisers’ role is to help participants assess their business position, evaluate how the programme’s content applies to their individual business situation, formulate plans to address specific challenges, and then manage the implementation of those plans in their workplace.
“When we talk about industry transformation, we are really referring to the transformation of individual businesses within that industry, which has the flow-on effect of change across the entire sector,” he says.
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Mansfield says there will be 500 training places available that are not related to the apprenticeship or trade-based training Future Print launched in January.
“This will be far more broadly based, covering key areas like front-line management, sales, marketing, lean manufacturing, IT and other vital business areas,” he says.
He says the project aims to help printers to identify where they will fit and prosper in the market of the future, then help them to make the necessary changes to reach that goal including improvements in productivity and upskilling workers.
“The challenges facing businesses across the whole print and graphic communications sector will impact on their business viability and workforce capacity,” he says.
“The Future Print Business Transformation Project has been designed to help them identify where they will fit into the market of the future, to manage the necessary change and reform, support innovation and underpin productivity improvements, and ensure delivery of the skilled workers necessary to enable them to successfully transition to meet the market of the future.”
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