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by Chandani Jayatilleke

Sri Lanka's printing industry is growing at top speed, creating a large number of job opportunities - 20 per week on the average. Believe it or not, at least two new printing institutions start operations every week. The demand for trained printing machine operators and for front-end jobs is great, in institutions here and abroad.

Unfortunately, there are no takers for these lucrative job opportunities. Why? "The chances are narrowing due to lack of infrastructure facilities for professional training. Due to financial constraints, we are not in a position to train a sufficient number of people a year," Government Printer Neville Nanayakkara told the Daily News.

In real terms, we have the capacity to be the regional human resource provider for the printing industry, considering the talent and the quality-consciousness of our people, he said.

In the local scene, the industry creates over 20 vacancies per week. For months the number of vacancies is increasing.

"To fill immediate vacancies, the industry is in need of 3,000 persons urgently," Nanayakkara said. On the international scene, Sri Lanka stands a better chance to make an impact, specially in the Middle East where there are jobs with attractive remuneration packages, Nanayakkara who is also the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Institute of Printing said.

The local printing industry has seen a remarkable growth over the past two decades and the number of printing establishments have gone up to 3,000 in 2003 from 1,200 in 1977. Over 50% of the establishments have the latest machinery and equipment which confirms the industry's growth on par with sophisticated technologies.

Printing has emerged as one of the most lucrative employment areas with a trainee (while being trained) getting Rs. 5,000 while others getting salaries from Rs. 10,000 to thumping Rs. 100,000.

However, it is unfortunate that the governments so far have failed to realise and recognise the importance of the printing industry and its potential as an employment generation field. "Thus, we have failed to train and produce sufficient persons in order to fulfil the demand in the industry," Nanayakkara said.

Sri Lanka Institute of Printing (SLIP), which offers internationally recognised certificate and diploma courses (in collaboration with the University of Colombo) has the capacity to train only 1,200 persons a year. They train about 700 freshers (school leavers) and the balance from the industry.

"This is not a satisfactory number at all, considering the growth in the industry. We need to increase this number to 3,000 and we have professionals to increase the number of training courses. So far, all those whom we have trained have got jobs in various institutions, ranging from printing, media, advertising to film industry," Nanayakkara said.

The current demand is such that, even if there is a ten-fold growth in trainees, the industry is ready to absorb all of them.

"As a nation we are rich in know-how and expertise in the industry. But we have not enough funds to train the youth in the numbers we wish to train."

According to Nanayakkara, the training of persons for front end of printing jobs is not a costly affair. "But to train printing machine operators is an expensive matter. Machinery used to train such persons will cost about Rs. 20 million and we can train only 30 people a year with one machine. This is nothing when compared to the demand. Therefore, we need more machinery or more money to buy machinery."

The Treasury has repeatedly refused to allocate money to improve the education facilities in the printing industry, he said.

Mind you, there are over, 40,000 unemployed graduates in the country at present. The governments have spent millions of funds to turn them out to be 'unemployable graduates'. "Considering the concessions and funds given to the Universities and other training institutions (Most of them do not find any employment), we find it difficult to understand the Treasury's attitude.

"If the Government could release 1/50th of what it gives to these institutions, we can see what sort of growth the printing industry could achieve in the future."

SLIP has been set up by an Act of Parliament under the Ministry of Mass Communication. Its board of directors has been appointed by the Ministry of Mass Communication. SLIP is at present located at the Government Press premises, until a permanent accommodation is found.

There are certificate courses and those who complete four certificate courses can go up to the diploma level. There are two diploma courses; Diploma in Printing Technology and Management and Diploma in Visual Communication and Management. These two diplomas are conducted in collaboration with the Colombo University and this diploma is equivalent to a basic degree.

Therefore, those who complete diploma courses can start doing their Masters Degrees soon after the diploma. Usually, in the front end field, school leavers are trained in the print origination part and this training will open doors in many other fields such as film, television, electronic media and advertising, besides printing.

Talking about foreign employment opportunities, Nanayakkara said many foreign employers prefer to recruit Sri Lankan employees because they believe that the Sri Lankans in this field are quality conscious.

This is an added advantage for us to get into lucrative Middle Eastern institutions. There is a ready-made market for offset printers in the Middle East with salaries from Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 100,000. Why can't we grab this opportunity and start providing skilled human resources to this market. Printers are well respected and given accommodation and all other facilities. What do our housemaids get?

Nanayakkara said the Government has allocated Rs. 9 million to develop the industry and the printing training facilities this year, but the release of funds has been held up due to various formalities.

"We need funds to set up the institution in a proper way and increase the number of trainees to 2,000 immediately. We have asked for Rs. 1.5 million to increase the number of trainees. Yet there hasn't been a favourable response from the Treasury. Our industry has supported the SLIP in numerous ways in the past. But, there is a limit to their contributions too, he said.

While the vacancies remain vacant, most of the printers now send their printing jobs to India. "If it becomes a trend, things will be difficult for us and for the industry. Even some of the books given by tenders, subject to the condition that the printing is done in Sri Lanka, are being printed in India. When questioned, the answer they give is, 'we had to do it in India due to lack of staff'.

The Treasury spends millions of rupees to produce unemployable graduates, but refuses to release funds to train people for whom jobs are already waiting. This is a very unfortunate situation.

At the Government Press, there are vacancies for 70 offset machine operators at the moment. "We have not been able to find suitable people to fill these vacancies," Nanayakkara said.

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