中文Picture this: a room full of women who, a few hours earlier, had never given a thought to print as a career. Now they are standing at a press, pulling their own business cards off the delivery tray — cards they designed from scratch, bled, ripped, and printed themselves. That is the kind of moment that quietly changes a life, and possibly an industry.
The most recent Women in Manufacturing pre-apprenticeship session ran on a Monday evening at Holmesglen TAFE. It was the third in the program, and the participants are doing exactly what the name promises: moving from the classroom into the real work of print.
Learning by doing, not by slideshow
The hands-on session walked them through the whole production process, starting with something everyone can relate to — a business card. They set the bleed. They prepared high-resolution images. They learned how a file has to be built before it ever reaches a press. Then their designs went through the Ricoh Fiery rip and out onto a Konica Minolta AccurioPrint. Screen to finished product, in one evening.
They also dug into the science that most people never see: CMYK colour, how printing actually works, colour rosettes, and the small miracle of how different inks combine to reproduce an image. It is the kind of knowledge that turns a vague curiosity into genuine confidence.
Why this matters more than it looks
Kellie Northwood, CEO of the Visual Media Association (VMA), put her finger on the quiet problem. “Print is so visible it’s invisible,” she said. Every day we touch packaging, labels, signage, commercial print — yet almost nobody understands the technology, the innovation, or the careers behind it. The industry has enormous capability and almost no story to tell about itself.
That storytelling gap is why young people, and women in particular, never consider print. Not because it is unattractive, but because it is invisible. Programs like this one shine a light directly into that blind spot.
And Northwood was clear that awareness is only half the battle. “We need employers to step forward, offer apprenticeships, and give these women the opportunity to turn their interest into a career.” Awareness without opportunity is just a nice evening that goes nowhere.
Mentoring the next generation
Phillip Mariette from the VMA introduced the participants to The Inkers, a program backed by Konica Minolta, with its Markers mentoring scheme. His point was sharp: attracting people is only part of the challenge. “We also have a responsibility to support them, develop their skills and give them reasons to stay.”
That is the part the industry too often forgets. We lament the workforce shortage, then do little to retain the few we attract. Mentoring, professional development, a sense of belonging — these are not nice-to-haves. They are the difference between a one-year fling with print and a thirty-year career.
Building real pathways
The Women in Manufacturing program is part of the VMA’s partnership with the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, pulling employers, unions, and training providers into the same room to build stronger pathways for women entering manufacturing. More practical sessions continue at Holmesglen over the coming weeks.
There is something deeply practical and quietly radical here. Instead of complaining that nobody wants to work in print, this program goes and finds people, hands them the tools, and shows them they can do it. The result is not abstract. It is a woman holding a business card she made, realising for the first time that this world was open to her all along.
If the print industry wants a future workforce, this is what building one looks like: less talk, more presses running.
Source: Print21 (October 21, 2026), by Wayne Robinson.
