While the Southbank Institute, which hosts the Brisbane Print School, did give a commitment to continue with a print training courses, the type of training committed to is currently vague. Industry figures want that training to include a variety hands on equipment, while the college is believed to prefer a theory and internet training solution, which would be far cheaper.
Following an industry outcry last month when the Institute revealed it wanted to sell the building currently housing the print school, in part at least to realise the $90m value of the site, a round table meeting was called to discuss the future of training, at what is the only print school for Queensland, NT and northern NSW.
Printing Industries says there is no cause for concern about the future of printing apprenticeship training in Queensland, following the meeting between PIAA, the Department of Education, Training and the Arts and Southbank Institute of Technology representatives. However concerns remain that high costs will make print training unviable in the future.
Southbank Institute of Technology’s CEO, Craig Sherrin, said that the Institute has, and will continue, to work in partnership with the printing industry to ensure the delivery of the training and the skills that the industry wants and, when and how that training is delivered.
Sherrin says, “Our continued collaboration means the industry can continue to increase productivity, innovation and appropriately train their workforce to enable them to compete in a global marketplace.”
Meanwhile, Ron Jackson, who until four weeks ago was a teacher at the school before he was fired along with half his colleagues, says Sherrin will only support the school as long as it fits his financial model and says this is near impossible with administration costs charged by the Institute currently at around 70 per cent.
“The government funding the school receives is enough but the 70 per cent he (Sherrin) insists on is too high, as long as we have that there is no hope. It is likely that in another year or two it will be said that print training is still not viable and it will be scrapped in favour of high level courses.”
“What we need is someone in charge who has a passion for printing. I really hope that he (Sherrin) is true to his word and supports printing because I would like to see the school remain.”
Neal McLary, Queensland general manager of Printing Industries, says the meeting renewed a commitment to continued training which ‘was never in doubt’ and urged printing employers to stop holding-off employing apprentices due to recent uncertainty about training in the industry.
Susan Heaney, Queensland president of Printing Industries, who also attended the meeting says, “Our members can rest assured that their apprentices will receive their required training at the School. Over the next six to eight months we will work closely with Southbank to put in place strategies and plans to ensure that the industry’s training needs of today and the future will be delivered.”
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