Did you know there was a Student Career Fair at Print 18?

By: Brian Regan, President Semper Workforce Solutions

We are all feeling the pain of a depleted talent supply. Many articles have been written about the reasons the print and adjacent industries are in this position. The reality of this issue has not gone unnoticed. We may finally be starting to see a shift from lamenting the problem to building sustainable solutions. NO, this industry is NOT DEAD. Nope, this industry is not what it was even 20 years ago. This is an evolving industry steeped in cool tech that delivers both real and virtual products and services. Things are getting exciting and what happened at Print 18 is a big, loud step forward.

Several months ago, the team at Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) reached out to me to ask the question, “How can we do a better job connecting students with industry?”. To me, that was music to my ears! Being one of those people who have been writing articles and talking loudly about this talent shortage we saw brewing for many years, I was overjoyed to have a group like theirs have the foresight and motivation to move from talking to doing.

I met with Judy Durham and Margie Garr from GAERF, the educational arm of APTech, and the outcome was, “Hey, let’s be bold, let’s run a Student Career Fair at Print 18.”. Not long after, the concept gained approval. WOW! A career fair at the show…Outstanding!

We tested the idea out with 10 Chicagoland companies. We asked questions like: Are you struggling finding talent for your positions? How hard is it to bring new people into your plants? Are you having luck with advertising and recruiting people? Would a student career fair at a major print show help the industry? If one were to happen, would you see value in participating?  

At the end of the idea-investigation period we were happy to note that all 10 companies we spoke with had said “yes,” they would love to be a part of the fair. That they knew that this was a needed event that could start to change the dynamic they were all facing: Young people were not entering the industry at the rate needed.

In the end, we finished up with 20 participating firms at the Student Career Fair. And two additional firms missed the registration deadline, but really wanted to attend. The positive news continued after the event with a few of the OEMs seeing the fair and wanting to join the next one.  

All said and done, there were about 500 high school and 150 college students at the Print18 show. Many of them made it to the career fair and some good connections were made. The biggest smileworthy lesson learned was the excitement and satisfaction from the educators. These are the people who fight to engage young people into their programs each and every day. They continually have to justify their programs to their school boards. The industry interest in their students and seeing the large amount of needs these employers had was just the spark they had hoped for. They need to know their efforts matter. They need to be connected to the industry and the industry needs to let them and their school boards know that these programs are vital.

Another interesting but not so positive element to this was the lack of industry media coverage to highlighting it. By the time of posting this blog, there has been no mention of it from any of the industry media sources. One of the biggest challenges the industry faces is lack of new talent. Print 18 has its first-ever career fair and …. crickets. BIZARRE!

At the end of the day here is what we learned.

? The industry took note and we received many positive comments.

? Educators were excited and motivated by the effort.

? The students had a glimpse of the possibilities of working in this industry.

? Hearts and minds were positively impacted.

? Student day + Recruiters/Human Resource professionals match up well.

? The ideas flooded in on how to improve the event and a number of these will be implemented at the next career fair.

The Print 18 Student Career Fair did not on its own solve the continuing talent crisis our industry faces. It did however, start a needed spark to the educators, schools and key industry watchers that we are not laying down and letting top talent pass us by. That we are going improve the way we represent ourselves and get our fair share of the future generations of workers.

About Semper Workforce Solutions:

Semper International, LLC., a Workforce Solutions company, with over 25 years in staffing the Print Industry with Skilled Print Industrial / Light Industrial, Marketing, Creative, Administrative & Clerical Talent. Semper serves 3 main vertical markets; 

? Consulting: Talent Attraction, Employee Retention & Training Programs 

? Staffing Solutions: Payrolling, Staff Augmentation, Flex Staffing, Contractors, Direct Hire, Talent Acquisition, Strategic Partnerships &Talent Management 

? Career Fair Services: On-Site, Campus, Regional / National