Committee member and managing director of Eastern Studios Roy Aldrich told Australian Printer, “Victorian members of the PIAA have made it clear to us that they want fully fledged off-the-job training for their apprentices, so that is what we will deliver.”
The formal announcement will be made late on Monday following a meeting between the Training Action Committee, the PIAA and the TAFE. Aldrich expects there will be an initial intake of around 200 apprentices, which he says will rise to 500 fairly quickly.
No date has yet been set for the start of the programme, but the Committee expects the as yet un-named TAFE to be ready to take apprentices in the next couple of months. It says it already has equipment lined up, knows where the teachers are, and has the course work necessary. It will initially offer courses in offset, flexo, prepress, and bindery and finishing.
The Committee says the new initiative will be headed by long time industry identity Ron Patterson, who until recently was the PIAA’s national marketing manager and Victorian state manager, and who has been the driving force in negotiations with the TAFE, and the RMIT for three years before it. Patterson says, “We believed that the industry itself could offer the best solution for off-the-job training, and that is what we will now have.”
Committee members, Trevor Hone managing director of Avon Graphics and life member of the Printing Industry Association, with Bob Yeates managing director at East Gippsland Newspapers and current oresident of Country Press Australia, said in concert that the committee has very strong industry support in Victoria and Tasmania, which will make the new venture solid and successful for print apprenticeship training.
The Training Action Committee have been meeting with the Minister for Higher Education, Peter Hall and Deputy Premier Peter Ryan, since RMIT walked away from apprenticeship training in the industry, leaving it, according to Aldrich, in a shambolic state.
Training for apprentices in the two states has been in disarray since the RMIT announced it was closing what was Australia’s leading print centre back in May. Following that shock announcement the Training Action Committee has been pursuing a new training centre. Talks with the RMIT broke down after the RMIT demanded $1m for the coursework. At the same time registered training organisation CLB came into the picture, but it is offering on-the-job training.
The PIAA itself is in the process of developing its own training arm, it bought an RTO (registered training organisation) and brought Joan Grace, former head of Print NZ to run it. Bill Healey, CEO of PIAA says, “Our primary goal is to offer good quality financially viable training.”
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