“When Polestar went down, it had a lot of good people. Polestar Sheffield in particular was at the top end of the market – the premiership of printing,” says George Thompson, joint managing director at Glasgow-based recruitment agency Harrison Scott Associates, which was helping many of the former employees of the stricken printer find new roles elsewhere.

Many of the Polestar’s skilled former staff could take their pick of suitors for where they could go next, but according to Thompson one factor really stood out: training and development. “We were able to attract clients to Prinovis because of their training programmes. For example, when we spoke to candidate X, I’d tell them about the three or so jobs – the money was important to them, of course, but so are benefits, and training and development was key,” says Thompson.

Investing in training and development means that staff are motivated, skilled and on the path to progression. It can also make for measurable gains to business performance, and best of all, there are various grants and avenues of funding that printers can take advantage of to pay for it – if they can find them. 

But even so, it’s not exactly a well-kept secret that the print trade doesn’t always necessarily deliver when it comes to strategic planning and investment for training, and the march towards so-called ‘green button’ machinery means that it occasionally takes a back seat. 

“It’s one of these unique industries where it’s owner-driven. For such a large industry, it’s full of self-made men who tend to do things on instinct,” says Thompson.

What’s also off-putting for many is the high costs associated with training and development, particularly when it comes to producing home-grown talent with apprenticeship schemes. It’s something that some printers are reluctant to invest in because of the prospect of their investment upping sticks and taking their new skills to a rival business. 

Specialists’ concerns

It’s a concern that Gary Blissett, managing director of Acton-based specialist bookbinder Blissetts admits to. The firm, a royal warrant holder, currently has two apprentices placed at Windsor Castle learning the highly specialised and increasingly rare skills required to produce super high-end books. “You can get so far down that road, and then if we lose those people, we lose money and time,” says Blissett.

However, the concerns about spending money on staff who’ve been trained could be remedied with some simple contractual adjustments.

“Print is highly skilled but also very incestuous,” says Dani Novick, director at Cheshire-based recruitment outfit Mercury Search & Selection, who recognises the qualms that many owner-managers have of investing in staff only to have them depart. She suggests that getting staff to pay for their own development costs is one way to get around the problem. “There are clauses to pay back training costs. It’s very easy, and very enforceable.”

It’s worth seeking the help of your firm’s solicitors when making these sort of agreements. It’s not uncommon for employees to argue that such contractual obligations are ‘penalty’ clauses if they depart, and aren’t enforceable. To avoid this, the addition of certain clauses is advisable, such as making the repayment term fixed, so the employee only has to pay the costs back if they leave within two years of completing the course. You could also make the payment on a sliding scale, and also be mindful that in some circumstances (like redundancy) that paying back the cost of training just isn’t appropriate.

The usual – and the ideal – procedure is that the employer will retain the right to deduct the cost of training from any final salary payments that are due to the employee once they’ve handed in their notice. But it’s got to be made explicit in a contract, or else a counter claim can be brought. 

Grants ahoy

There are also numerous skills grants and funds for training and apprenticeships which printers can access to help contribute to training up their staff, available from the Skills Funding Agency.

But knowing about them, and getting access to the cash for staff development isn’t always easy. Novick says: “They’re outstanding things – but too few people take them up because they don’t know about them. It’s not well published. With grant websites, it’s like wading through treacle. There’s a lack of information.” She is also critical of the inflexibility attached to them. “They need easier access, and what you can use the funding for is very specific.”

If you’re a member, the BPIF can help point you in the right direction of funding for training, but if you’re not then your local business advisory service ought to be able to put you on the right track. The good news is that once you’ve identified what you’d like to pursue, getting your hands on the money shouldn’t be an overly demanding administrative task.

“There aren’t many hoops. In fact, it’s straightforward, and really not that difficult,” says Novick. And partnering with the right training organisation could make the process even smoother.

Opus Trust Marketing, a document and postal service company, has recently introduced management and leadership training for some of its younger staff, as well as implementing training for new machinery. “The reason we’ve brought in a training department is that print is a fast-changing industry – we’re getting new clients and new machinery all the time. 

“Of course, there’s also the health and safety element – there’s the distinct possibility of someone getting hurt or not doing the job properly if they’re just told to go and use a piece of machinery,” says Janine McFarlane, head of HR at Opus. The company has also introduced professional qualifications for promising staff who want to progress in the company. “We’ve brought in NVQs for our young and shining stars to move into senior positions,” she says.

Opus partnered with Derby-based training company Qualitrain to deliver its skills programme. Aside from delivering the training, there was another important aspect Qualitrain brought to the table: taking the pain out of getting access to the funding. In fact, it meant that Opus didn’t have to fill in one form. “They come in, deliver the training and access the grant. It can be a minefield, but they can walk you through it,” says McFarlane.

If you’re working with an external agency, it’s important to get one that aligns properly to your business. “Find someone who will offer support with generating funded training,” advises McFarlane. “They can almost become part of your organisation.”

If you’re spending money on training and diverting employees’ time away from production, then you’ll want to know that you’re getting maximum value for your investment.

Popular training courses that give real tangible (and importantly, measurable) skills currently currying favour with printers are continual improvement, project management and lean – all of which can have an immediate impact on your company and bring expertise and knowledge which can be transferred across different parts of a business.

The BPIF also runs trade-specific courses on everything from leadership and management and health and safety to introductions to social media.

And while many training firms will happily turn up at your premises to deliver their courses, there’s something to be said for sending staff away into the world to get added value in addition to what you’re paying the training company for. “My preference is always for training where a person goes away and gets exposure to different ideas and different people,” says Mercury’s Novick.

For Novick, there are lots of benefits to this approach rather than just having someone come into the business and deliver training. “Your staff are exposed to different industries, different mindsets and different views,” she says. 

The apprentice

More people than ever are in apprenticeships at the moment. Since May 2010, over 3 million apprenticeship opportunities have been created in industry across the UK, and printers have long taken advantage of them with the BPIF’s own apprenticeship scheme.

Buckinghamshire-based printer BCQ Group is just one of them, and the system has a track record of bringing through skilled, loyal staff who are with the company for the long haul. 

“We’ve had a number of them through the BPIF and internal mentors – there are four or five 40-somethings here who were apprentices from local schools and worked their way up,” says Anita Wise, operations and compliance manager at BCQ Group. 

“It works. One of the concerns is that people worry about putting resource, time and money into developing apprentices only to have them leave. But in our experience, by giving them that development, they stay here.”

BCQ is currently trialling a new apprenticeship programme that takes its cues from university graduate schemes and the sort of experiences medical students get, working in a wide range of disciplines before finally settling on a specialism. 

To identify candidates for its latest intake, which started in October, the company staged presentations at local schools and colleges, then hosted an open day at its own site where it welcomed interested students into the business to get a flavour of what to expect. Applicants were then whittled down to a select few who will spend the next year working in every department at BCQ.

 “We recognise that when you come out of school, you don’t necessarily know what you want to do,” says Wise. “With this scheme, they spend 12 months with us learning every part of BCQ and the print industry. The idea is that by the 11th month we’ll sit down with them and see what they contributed the best to and then decide which NVQ to go for. That way, you’ve got an employee who knows where they want to work.”

Josh Thomas, chairman of the BPIF’s apprentice’s council, is just one of the BPIF’s apprenticeship scheme’s many success stories. “Our role is to help them and to help their apprentice understand how they can work better, by getting people more involved.” He also works on delivering consistency in training, so apprentices are getting the correct skills to succeed wherever they’re based.

Thomas started his apprenticeship in 2012. “I finished school in 2007,” he said. “I had spent two years in college, which wasn’t going so well. But I was working part-time at my local printer”.

Having spent several years working in the company, he decided he wanted to progress and ended up on a BPIF apprenticeship programme. “I didn’t just learn about the machines – but also how to manage people, diversity, and lots more,” he says.

For Wise, understanding that an apprentice might not know exactly what they want to do in the industry, particularly when they’re relatively young, is the key to getting the most out of them. 

“I think it depends on apprentice’s age – if you’re getting them straight from education, don’t pigeonhole them. With an older person in their 20s who wants to do an apprenticeship, then it might be different. But they’re not just for people straight from school.”

Broad experience

However, Thomas feels that all apprentices could benefit from not being consigned to a single department. “I think it’s important not to stick to one thing, and give them the opportunity to move around. If you’re just stuck on one machine you can get in a rut”, he says.

Another source of potential staff development is from the Printing Charity. While it does not deliver training itself, it does support training initiatives for people looking to work in the sector and for those already in it.

“We continue to look for new partnerships that directly support these aims. We particularly want to work with print, publishing and packaging businesses to identify the skills needed to help young people make the transition from education to industry or develop within their existing roles,” says chief executive Neil Lovell.

The charity runs the annual Print Futures Awards, which offer grants of £1,500 to help people aged 16 to 30 years to support formal training courses for careers in printing, publishing and packaging. They’re open to people who are already working in the industry and would like to undertake courses and training to develop their workplace skills. They’re also available to apprentices, or people who are studying for a career in printing, publishing or packaging.

The print trade has not always done well in engaging with younger people who want to enter the industry. Indeed the Sector Skills Council that was set up to help build training provision across print and a range of other industries, Proskills, closed down earlier this year, after becoming a self-financing organisation in 2011. 

Financial support, then, is available for a variety of training initiatives and is worth pursuing. But even when it’s not, the bigger picture of the benefits that flow through to a business and to the individuals that work there can be payback in itself. 

Apprenticeships on the rise, but why?

Perhaps it’s because of the eye-watering expense of going through university and the increasing financial demands on young people, but since 2010 the number of apprenticeship opportunities has grown exponentially, in print and beyond. 

Government figures released in October revealed that 905,000 people are in currently involved in an apprenticeship scheme.

The figures also show that there are more young people starting apprenticeships, with more than 130,000 under 19-year-olds starting schemes during the 2015 to 2016 academic year.

And it’s not just the entry-level skills schemes that are increasingly popular – 27,000 higher and degree-level apprenticeships have been undertaken so far in 2015-2016, and employers like BAE Systems are already on board when it comes to higher apprenticeships.

Degree apprenticeships are also currently available in careers ranging from engineering to public relations.

When you consider that student fees now have an upper limit of £9,000 a year, it’s not surprising that many younger people are opting out of a life of debt to get vocational training. The government was set to cut apprenticeship funding in deprived areas this year, but after a social media campaign led by FEWeek, the plans are being reconsidered and a u-turn is expected.