Joan Grace is to join Australia’s Printing Industries Association as it responds to the closure of RMIT’s print facility by becoming a registered training organisation.
Grace is currently chief executive of industry group PrintNZ and chief executive of the Communications and Media Industry Training Organisation.
PIAA president Susan Heaney says the group’s board views the move as essential to provision of key skills in the industry. They had endorsed the appointment of a person “of the highest calibre” to manage its establishment.
“We cannot allow the future of printing industry training to remain in peril and subject to the changing policies of various governments,” she says.
“After the recent decision by RMIT in Victoria the industry wants certainty, vision, greater co-ordination and the ability to provide the kind of training required for its ongoing development. This is particularly the case in an increasingly multi-channel communication world where opportunities are being created but new skills demanded.”
Joan Grace will head the RTO as general manager, education, employment and training.
“She revolutionised training for the New Zealand industry and created a model that is the envy of organisations locally and internationally,” Heaney says.
PIAA chief executive Bill Healey says the appointment is a major coup for Australian industry training and for Printing Industries’ current campaign to ensure Victorian and Tasmanian printing companies were not disadvantaged by the RMIT’s decision to exit from print training.
“Joan has accepted a contract with us and will be relocating to Victoria where she will be based in our Melbourne office,” he said. “Her initial role will be to establish the national RTO on behalf of the printing industry and to ensure that industry training in Victoria is maintained.”
Printing Industries was “fast-tracking” the RTO establishment, Healey says. “We are in the final stages of negotiations to purchase an existing organisation allowing us to fast-track this project.
“We are continuing to have discussions with the Victorian government on achieving our objective to fill gaps in apprentice training brought about by RMIT’s departure from its printing industry training role,” he said. “This RTO project is one of the most important and far reaching decisions of Printing Industries in recent times and will help redefine our industry’s future.”