The Visual Media Association (VMA) has made a formal submission to the Federal Government’s Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Priority List, calling for urgent recognition of the print, signage, and packaging sectors as critical sovereign manufacturing industries requiring skills and training support.

Representing Australia’s largest manufacturing workforce, with more than 229,000 direct employees, the VMA’s submission highlights that the nation’s print, sign and packaging trades underpin essential services, from food and pharmaceutical packaging to health, and government communications and transport and logistics directions.

“The print, sign and packaging sectors are high employing manufacturing industries with diverse skills requirements,” said Kellie Northwood, CEO, Visual Media Association.

“Our apprenticeships produce the skilled tradespeople who ensure that vital communication, packaging, and sign production systems continue to operate for every Australian. To exclude these trades from priority recognition risks hollowing out sovereign manufacturing capacity.”

The submission calls for a principles-based, evidence-driven approach that strengthens national capability rather than responding only to short-term labour shortages. It argues that the current methodology used by Jobs and Skills Australia does not accurately reflect workforce demand in these sectors, where acute skills shortages, an ageing workforce, and rapid technological transformation are combining to threaten long-term sustainability

Among its key recommendations, the VMA proposes:

• Prioritising sovereign manufacturing trades within the Apprenticeship Priority List;
• Establishing a transparent annual review cycle with formal consultation through peak industry bodies;
• Introducing a Future Skills Stream to recognise new and emerging roles in digital print and sign automation and sustainable packaging technologies; and
• Expanding eligibility to include hybrid trade-professional roles bridging design, production, and technology.

Northwood emphasised that apprenticeships in these trades provide structured, nationally accredited qualifications that cannot be replaced by informal training.

“Our members rely on apprenticeships to maintain quality assurance, innovation, and safety standards,” she said.

“We need a stable, skills-focused framework that builds the next generation of creative and technical tradespeople.”

The VMA has succeeded in previous years returning graphic communications and signage apprenticeships to the Priority List through lobbying initiatives. Further, the VMA launched it’s ‘Buy Australian – Print, Sign and Packaging’ campaign earlier this year and through discovery phasing has found the majority of government department signage is being produced overseas.

The VMA’s submission makes firm in its position Australian manufacturers must be supported as the priority on all counts from skills and training to government tendering. With the submission concluding that Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability depends on an adaptive, inclusive, and future-focussed apprenticeship system, ensuring that local skills remain central to national productivity and economic resilience.

“Protecting these trades isn’t just about jobs, it’s about securing Australia’s ability to make, move, and communicate for itself,” Northwood said.

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