Amicus, the union with  which GPMU is merging on 1 October, is calling on the government to reintroduce the training levy to compel employers to provide a minimum amount of training every year for their staff.

Simpson said it was no coincidence that productivity levels in manufacturing were much higher in France and Germany as both provided greater investment in skills and training. "Without a similar commitment in the UK our manufacturing industry will fall even further behind," said Simpson.

The call for training follows the industry's rejection of a proposed statutory training levy in May (PrintWeek, 27 May) by some 60% of respondents to a BPIF/GPMU Funding for Training Working Group consultation.

The BPIF's director of corporate and external affairs Cicely Brown said that it did not believe a levy would tackle the market failure in skills shortages.

She pointed to the resounding "no" vote as an indication of employers' views on a levy and said the experience of the printing industry could provide fuel for the debate raised by Amicus.

This, she said, posed two challenges for the government: to work with sectors to drive young people into industries with more severe skills shortages; and to promote more widely the benefits a fully trained workforce delivers to a business' bottom line.

Polestar Group human resources director Catherine Hearn said there were some big skills issues, which she felt the industry was not doing enough to fill. However, she said until there was an initiative where all funds attained went solely into training, Polestar would not not support a levy. "Time and again we see monies spent on administration and bureaucracy and not its real goal, training."

Paul Green, managing director at Paul Green Printing said that something needed to be done to improve training. "Making it compulsory would have an adverse effect, and we need assistance from government in more than just training," he said. The GPMU has also called on government to take "a courageous step".

National officer Chris Harding said the government needed to have the courage to introduce statutory training levies on sectors that fail to improve skills levels, whether a sector skills council was in place or not.

Story by Andy Scott