Education and Recruitment — Cure for Workforce Woes?

GENERAL COMMERCIAL printing is a $60 billion industry, employing about 300,000 workers. Due to normal attrition, and a fair amount of people (mostly baby boomers) retiring from the industry each year, there are 30,000 to 40,000 openings in the general commercial market at any given time. Yet, there are only about 1,000 college students graduating with printing degrees annually. Industrywide, including all graphic arts companies, there are about one million people employed, with an additional 60,000 job openings.

That eye-opening information, provided by Ted Ringman, vice president of development for the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF), provides an alarming visual of the quandary facing our industry today.

“Printing is a manufacturing industry, and printers are doing more with less—that is, technology is providing higher output,” Ringman says. “But, print differs from some other manufacturing segments because print will always be with us, and there will always be jobs available in the printing industry. Thus, there will always be a need for workers.”

So why is the industry facing a skilled labor shortage that is near crisis magnitude?

The answer to that question, as well as potential solutions, was discussed in Part One of this article in our March issue. Here, in Part Two, industry experts delve further into the dilemma and, most importantly, explore other possible remedies.

Dispelling Myths

—Dean Flowers, associate dean, Harry V. Quadracci Printing & Graphics Center, Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), Pewaukee, WI; e-mail: dflowers@wctc.edu

One of the concerns in our industry is the misconception that printing is blue-collar work. Printing is more than running a press. There are hundreds of other opportunities for graduates; operating a press is only one of them.

Students that opt for a four-year degree in printing are planning on an administrative career path. They may have visions of obtaining an executive-level position or perhaps owning a printing company some day.

There are also plenty of opportunities in manufacturing for college graduates. In fact, many new high-end presses are networked and require a pretty high skill set to run. College graduates can track and measure the performance of these presses, monitor color, plan production schedules, troubleshoot press problems and provide guidance in the pressroom.

Most college programs offer course work well beyond basic press and finishing operations to develop graduates who understand the business of print, and who are able to identify and respond to consumer, business and technology trends that affect the distribution of print. Graduates with these qualifications are better able to think strategically. The key is to have a solid curriculum that teaches individuals the business of printing to prepare them for a dynamically changing industry.

Another problem is that most high schools do not offer degrees in printing or graphic communications—and the number of programs is decreasing every year. Printers should take the time to write their local school boards about how important a healthy graphic arts program is to their company’s future. With tight budgets, technical education programs are the first to be cut.

Let local school officials know that you want their printing programs to be supported and to prosper.

Printers also need to ask their local Craftsman Club or printing association to share with schools the economic impact that printing has on the local economy, the number of people employed at their company, their annual payroll and what they pay in local property taxes to support their programs.

These efforts work and often result in program expansion. Over the past six years, three high schools in Waukesha County (WI) have added print programs to their tech ed offerings. This is almost unheard of in most parts of the country.

Our print program conducted two “Partner Meetings” for high school counselors last year. The 40 counselors who attended were provided an overview of the industry, our program and the opportunities that existed for our graduates. A panel made up of graduates and area employers shared information about their jobs and income opportunities. It really opened the counselors’ eyes, and they appreciated the information we provided. If you want high school counselors to change their perspective, you need to take the time to educate them.

Print Education Today

—Dr. Harvey Levenson, department head, Graphic Communication Department, Cal Poly; e-mail: hlevenson@calpoly.edu

The graphic communications industry is in a state of transition, with companies diversifying in mission and processes to address competing communication media. Central to effective graphic communications education are a number of premises that apply equally to education and training for the 21st century. They are:

• Education does not take place in a block of time. For a career to remain viable, vital and productive, ongoing education, training and re-training have to be defined and expected for nearly every position on both the management and production levels.

• A university is the last bastion of idealism. It serves as a laboratory to create situations simulating industry to provide students with a window of their professional future. A university that provides the opportunity for students to experience ideal or near-ideal conditions, graduates individuals who bring some of that idealism to their jobs and, hence, improve the industry.

• Education is more than a bachelor’s degree to prepare one for an occupation. “Human” skills are increasingly what drive companies to success. More specifically, marketing, sales, customer service and related training are just as important, or even more important, than training how to operate a piece of equipment.

Hence, training in our industry is moving toward preparing people to develop the business skills needed to generate business and to keep equipment running. This should be a major focus of graphic communications academic programs. Labs should be equipped with the type of technology used by industry, thus providing opportunities to simulate real business and production conditions.

The graphic communications profession needs a vision of the future, and there is no better group to help form this than those educators preparing the industry’s future leadership. The graphic communications industry will survive and grow only when it:

Begins seeing itself and acting as a service profession.

Begins increasing the extent to which on-demand printing is offered.

Increases the degree to which digital and variable data printing are provided.

Adopts and embraces alternative media, such as the Internet.

Provides value-added products and services, i.e, ancillary services.

Increases its focus on niche markets.

Becomes more personal and interactive in its product offerings.

Invests in new technology that supports the market demand for communication media.

Markets itself better to print buyers, advertisers and marketers.

The ability to do all of this rests in having personnel with the intellect, open-mindedness, business sense, understanding of technology and vision to transform the graphic communications profession into one that addresses the fundamental information and communication needs of society—on the individual level and for commerce.

Next-Gen Workforce

—Brian Regan, president of Semper International, an industry placement firm; e-mail: bregan@semperllc.com

Since the Education Summit was held (during Graph Expo 2007), the industry is coming together and becoming very focused on education and training in order to resolve the shortage of skilled workers in the printing industry.

My role is to advocate the interaction between our industry and younger people, essentially getting young people interested in pursuing careers in the graphic arts.

I’m a strong advocate for starting early.

For example, Disney Playhouse has a show about a four-year-old named Daniel Cook. In one episode, he visits a printing plant to see how the books about his TV character are published. He becomes very excited as he’s shown the printing process.

There is a powerful tie between books and printing. If kids love books, there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in “the art” of printing, too.

Another important way to attract talent to the industry is through social networking, using Internet sites like Facebook and “virtual worlds” like Second Life that focus on teenagers, while serving as a platform for educators, industry and college students. We need to get the word out about printing in a way and in a place where young people get together, chat, and exchange information and ideas.

The online forum gives us the perfect opportunity to do that. We’re getting school counselors and young print professionals involved in Facebook and Second Life in a collaborative effort, to talk up printing and to bring attention to it. We’re creating a casual awareness and developing a learning atmosphere about printing, which will create excitement for print.

Getting the Word Out

—Ted Ringman, VP of development, Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation; e-mail: tring1998@aol.com

An important piece of the recruitment puzzle is the industry’s lobbying efforts. It’s one of the most critical areas. Federal and state level funding for education programs is based on information about that industry, i.e., job stats, names/titles of positions, pay rate, etc.

Without current, accurate information and with improper funding to update the information, the printing industry struggles to improve training, education and development of its schools.

The government needs updated information about our industry if we are to get proper funding. A group of printing industry leaders is lobbying the government, but it will take time to get changes made; perhaps a few years, but we’ll do it.

We also need to inform and educate both junior and senior high schools, as well as guidance counselors, about what an exciting, high-tech, high-paying industry printing is. Posters that promote careers in printing or announce available scholarships for printing should be produced. We need to create and manufacture career guidebooks about the printing industry and then hold one-on-one meetings with guidance counselors to distribute and promote them.

The PGSF has created a career guide, “Careers in Graphic Communications,” which has been a helpful tool in recruiting young people. We’ve produced 250,000 copies. It’s helped double the number of applications for PGSF scholarships within just one year.

We hand it out at open houses, give it to guidance counselors, and drop it off at school offices and libraries. Several printers also ask for it, so they can give it out to anyone interested in pursuing a career in printing. And, another great thing is that the guidebook can be downloaded online at the GraphicCommCentral Website at www.teched.vt.edu/gcc .

GraphicCommCentral is maintained and marketed by GAERF as a central clearinghouse of information about the printing industry, for students, industry educators and the industry at large.

It contains updates on the 230 colleges that offer graphic arts programs, as well as information about industry scholarships, internships and summer jobs. It contains lists and links for careers and job information, curriculum and instruction, grants, technical training, publications and industry associations.

It’s a wonderful resource for promoting interest in graphic communications. PI