What are you willing to do to attract the best talent? I ask because a new report from Santander shows that only 8% of 15-16 year olds consider apprenticeships a viable alternative to university - largely due to salary expectations. Those opting for university expect to earn £113,000 a year, compared to £46,000 for those undertaking an apprenticeship.
That’s not too bad to my mind, but bright young things obviously don’t feel the same way. So how do you get them into your business? Well, pay up is one option – there are others outlined in this month’s Top Tips article on how to attract and retain the best digital talent – an area where we’re seeing particular competition for employees in the UK. For the digital print sector – despite having the word ‘digital’ to its name – the industry is hardly a key draw to newbies wanting to kick start their career in IT
Pay packets aside, there’s plenty PSPs can do to make themselves more attractive to those that might not really be considering ‘printing’ as a cutting edge sector - heck we’ve learned enough about the power of branding over the last few years to recognise that. But we’re not great at it on a sectorwide scale, so it’s largely up to individual companies to work out how best to develop their own ‘pulling power’.
In the Innovators feature slot this issue we take a look at the Simpson Group’s commitment to the Investors in People scheme, and its to links with universities - both of which play a huge part in ensuring the non-print specific print community gets the right message about the opportunities it affords talented young people in this data led climate.
Which leads me on nicely to ‘blockchain’, which is having something of a moment - the World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab having described it as “being at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution.” A stretch too far for print PSPs to become involved with? Maybe you’ll think differently after reading the On the Radar feature!