Life might be about all things digital these days, but the print industry is still relevant and going strong. However, we do have a serious problem: there’s a dearth of young people coming into our industry and without a new generation to take on the mantle, we’re going to be faced with a major skills gap within the next decade. When I look around in print, sales, design and servicing, I’m alarmed by how few young faces there are, and how this is going to impact the industry moving forward.

Of course, there is a solution. We need to redouble our efforts to encourage young people into print. Fresh contingents moving up through the ranks are the lifeblood of every industry – they bring the new ideas and enthusiasm which prevent stagnation. For a sector such as print, which is sometimes viewed as old-fashioned or outdated, it’s absolutely critical that we address this issue now, before it’s too late.

In a nutshell, both the industry as a whole and individual players need to be proactive rather than reactive. We can’t wait until the skills gap has become a gaping hole. Apprenticeship schemes, such as those from BPIF in particular, should be embraced for a number of reasons. Not only can they plug the skills gap within your own company, but research has shown that training plays a key role in job satisfaction – in other words, in staff retention. There’s also evidence that businesses which invest an extra £50 a week in training increase profits twice as fast as those that don’t have a training budget. Intermediate skills are scarce in the UK compared with other European countries, and it’s affecting our productivity. For companies that are already members of BPIF, taking advantage of the apprenticeship scheme makes perfect sense.

Just tune in to the benefits of employing apprentices. They fulfil roles at a low cost, while allowing your business to dip a toe in the water as to whether or where additional manpower is required. The fact that this means employing inexperienced staff that will require more supervision and guidance is offset by the lower cost – and it’s time for us all to take responsibility for building up the industry’s skill pool. At SEDO, we’ve found apprenticeship schemes to be of great benefit, so I have no qualms about recommending them to others.

But what more can be done to encourage younger applicants? For a start, a lot of young people have had no contact with the print industry and have no reason to think of it when considering a career path to follow. This has to change. It means reaching out and engaging with schools earlier to show teenagers what the print industry is about, and how they could fit into it. There are more roles than just that of printer to promote – we all need engineers, sales people and a host of other disciplines working for us, so let’s create a wider awareness that these skills are in demand.

We’re all growing older and I’m seeing fewer and fewer young people starting out. Now’s the time to act, so that we can build a cohort of younger skilled print industry professionals. Because these will be the people to secure the future of our industry once we’re put out to pasture. And without them, what will happen?