Employers
The printing industry is changing.
Profit margins are decreasing while competition for customers is increasing.
The recent CPISC Skills and Technology Roadmap report showed that internet and web-to-print are just some of the technologies changing the nature of printing. Their growing influence means that Canadian printers are now competing for business with counterparts in new countries, across the world.
Combined with other factors, such as increased environmental awareness among customers and automation and integration of post-press tasks, this means even more change.
And that means printing industry employers – like you – have to change the way you do business. Printing as a manufacturing industry is almost a thing of the past, with customer demands and new technologies shifting printing towards being part of the service industry.
All this change means that now, more than ever, printing companies need access to employees that are well-skilled in embracing change and technology and maximising the benefits for printing companies.
To support printing industry employers, CPISC has already delivered and is continuing to work on a range of industry-supported projects. These include:
Skills and Technology Roadmap
This report, released in November 2008, outlines the technologies having the greatest impact on the printing industry. Technology roadmaps, like this one, help guide industry employers in making business decisions. The CPISC report also focuses on skills, providing employers with insight into their human resource needs for the future. The roadmap also provides a series of seven recommendations for industry that will help printing companies prosper and thrive into the future.
Labour Market Information
The Labour Market Information report, released in November 2008, provides the most up-to-date snapshot of the printing industry. Access to reliable labour market data helps employers make effective human resource decisions. This information has been further updated through the HR Study that was released in 2009.
HR Study
This report is an update of the 2003 Sector Study completed by CPISC, and builds on the industry definition included in the Labour Market Information report released in 2008. The industry overview and human resource profile provides a summary of the printing and graphic communications industry and its workforce as well as the technology and human resource trends and challenges. In response to the HR issues identified in the report, CPISC has also developed and released a series of four papers that include straightforward advice, examples of best practice and tips and links for dealing with the key issues.
To read the HR Study report click here.
To read the HR Study Issues Papers, use the links below:
>> Talent pipeline: HR Study Issue Paper 1
>> High performance workplaces: HR Study Issue Paper 2
>> Filling the gap: HR Study Issue Paper 3
>> Ready for change: HR Study Issue Paper 4
National Skill Standards
Through this project, CPISC has worked with industry to identify the basic and core skills that all employees working in the sector should have.
Job-specific skill standards for press, prepress, finishing and bindery operators have also been developed and released, as well as for colour and output specialists..
The skill standards basically list all of the skills and competencies employees should have and so they are useful for employers, helping you to assess the skills of new and existing workers and to identifying training and skill development needs.
Education and training
If you want to find out more about possible education and training opportunities check out the CPISC report on Education and Training Programs and Providers for the Printing and Graphic Communications Industry, which includes a list of training institutions as well as an analysis of the type and scope of training programs currently available.
CPISC is also updating this information through our Training Needs Assessment project to review existing training opportunities and look at the gaps to see where and how training programs could be improved to meet industry needs. The study is also looking at training delivery models to ensure that training opportunities are flexible and reflect the unique needs of businesses – big and small.
Ensuring your workers have the right mix of industry-validated skills can make them more adaptable, efficient and increase productivity in your company or business.
Career Focus Program
Career Focus is a federally funded program under Human Resource and Skills Development Canada providing wage-subsidy funding for the printing and graphic communications sector to hire post-secondary graduates. Delivered by CPISC, the Career Focus program may subsidize up to one third of a new employee’s wage for up to one year of employment.
