The review, being carried out by industry stalwarts and partners at creative consultancy 111Collectif Alison Harper and Glyn Farrow, follows the announcement last month that without greater support from the print industry PrintIT! will struggle to survive beyond the end of 2016.

Farrow said: “We want to look at what PrintIT! has accomplished so far and also what the aims and objectives really are. We want to get views from the industry and to find out if they truly understand the value of apprenticeships and training and the value of giving to a registered charity.”

Since it was launched 11 years ago, around 150,000 pupils have entered the annual PrintIT! design and print competition and learned about careers in the industry.

The scheme needs £70,000 a year to operate but last year Proskills, formerly a government funded organisation, only managed to raise £11,000.

Proskills chief executive Jonathan Ledger said: “The print contribution is plummeting which is a crying shame because it’s one of the most successful schools-into-industry programmes around. We’re trying to understand whether it’s the formula, the way it operates or if we need to do something different in a different environment. So this review will look at some of the ways we need to tread in the future."

Ledger said that Farrow and Harper's charitable backgounds also put them in the perfect place to help Proskills make the most of its charitable status, which it gained in 2014, to leverage funds.

"We hope we can identify additional ways to support the programme, perhaps from outside the print industry. It shouldn’t be a burden on the print industry but a collaborative approach and we need the industry to come along on the journey," Ledger said. 

Farrow added: “Unless the print industry can see a real benefit to them, no one is going to support it. People want a return on investment, whether it’s a charity or not, so that’s what we want to demonstrate.  

"We’re only at the beginning of this review, but what I can say at this moment is that I’m fired with enthusiasm about where this organisation and the PrintIT! programme is going. I think it’s a sleeping giant.”