News

What with all the doom and gloom at the moment, it’s great to be able to report on some positive industry news this week – namely the culmination of the third annual PrintIT! Awards. (For those of you who don’t know what the PrintIT! initiative is, turn to p22.)

It’s great to hear that so many kids – 23,000 this year and well over 60,000 to date – have taken part, and hopefully developed a new-found interest in print.

However, before I start gushing about the positive impact of schemes like PrintIT!, I know that some in the sector believe that trying to attract young people to the industry when there’s so much bad news about business closures and deskilling is tantamount to mis-selling.

But those that cite the trials and tribulations of the print industry as a good reason for the workforce of tomorrow to give it a wide berth are missing the point.

Print is a tough sector, but I’m sure there are tougher. And I know there are people (many more than those doom mongers would probably like to admit) who are making a pretty good living and are equally positive about the future.

There’s little point pretending that with such an ageing workforce and the relatively high number of business closures, and therefore workers exiting the industry, right now, the print sector won’t be facing a massive recruitment problem for the immediate future.

But print, in some form, is going to be around for a good few centuries yet, and therefore it will need workers, managers and business innovators. And that surely is the whole point of PrintIT!: it’s about helping to ensure the industry has a talent pool of leaders and workers tomorrow, not just today.

Darryl Danielli is editor of PrintWeek.