BOOK PRINTER
Allan Gray, production director, Ashford Colour Press
A year ago, getting young people into the industry was key, but now I’m not hiring – it isn’t one of my immediate concerns. In a normal environment, the lack of quality candidates would be a serious problem, but so few companies are hiring. It’s not training related, but if I had the ear of anyone in government, I would ask for a tightening of insolvency laws to limit pre-packs and the damage caused by companies going bust. The government needs to stop companies trading insolvently and prevent companies trading with bad debt. When a model is flawed, a company should just go bust.

TRAINING PROVIDER
Jon Bray, director, Learn2Print
We are struggling with promoting the industry to schools at the early stages. Training has been severely hit by the recession. Many print colleges have packed up as there are not enough people going there and the print education establishment has seen a massive decline. I have been trying to put the colleges back on the map and we are going to the print companies on their behalf to do the training on-site. The sheer cost of companies sending people to print college is expensive. The government wants companies to foot 50% of the bill, which is crackers in light of the industry cutting back. The government needs to provide greater funds to support the training.

COMMERCIAL PRINTER
Mark Snee, managing director, Technoprint
Skills aren’t the big issue what with all the job losses in the print industry. I think the bureaucracy needs to be stripped away and people need to be given the freedom to generate growth. The government has to cut taxes to free industry to do what it does. Local rates are too expensive and our Yorkshire site has seen a 35% increase in business rates alone, which is having serious consequences. The British tax system is uncompetitive and the high taxes are forcing the financial sector abroad. We are losing our competitive edge and I don’t even think the skills minister is the right person to take this issue to.

TRADE BODY
Sydney Bobb, chairman, BAPC
One of the major issues is attracting young talent into the industry. I think the biggest problem is getting the right sort of young people interested. I don’t know if it’s the government or the industry’s problem but we need to create an environment to get people to join. There must be better training, facilities and emphasis on developing management skills, rather than just focus on machinery operators. It’s also essential to get people to recognise the future of graphic communications. I believe the print industry needs to get its training house in order before it tries to lobby government. If the training situation doesn’t improve, I really worry that the sector’s days are numbered.