The Print and Graphic Communication National Training Organisation (PGC NTO) is to co-ordinate work towards developing a new Sector Skills Council (SSC) for print following the governments decision not to renew recognition of NTOs.

A paper published this week by the Department for Education and Skills (Dfes) states that SSCs will be better resourced than NTOs, but they must demonstrate greater employer investment in skills development.

There will also be fewer SSCs than NTOs, of which there are 70, but the number of employers in a sector will not determine if an SSC is fit for purpose.

PGC NTO chief executive Richard Beamish said the organisation had formed an action team to liaise with employers, training providers, the GPMU, and external agencies to establish the level of demand.

"The concern we have is that if we have a large amorphous body, employers arent going to recognise it as having anything to do with them," Beamish said.

He said the PGC NTO had three options: to seek to be an SSC in its own right; form an alliance with another NTO in a related industry; or form an alliance with a number of other NTOs.

"Were looking at the second two," he said. "Its not a matter of lets rebadge and off we go. [The government] is not just moving the deckchairs."

By Lauretta Roberts