New Minnesota collaborative to provide in-demand career pathways for workers to enter and advance within Minnesota’s printing industry

Minneapolis Pathways Fund grant awarded to partnership of Print Industry Midwest, Avivo, and Goodwill Easter-Seals Minnesota to recruit and train new employees in printing industry

Minneapolis, Minn. – A Minneapolis Pathways Fund grant through the City of Minneapolis was awarded to a new Minnesota collaborative between Printing Industry Midwest (PIM), Avivo, Goodwill Easter-Seals Minnesota (GESMN), and employer partners, to recruit potential employees into the printing industry. The partnership will create a curriculum repository and training resource for employers to hire new employees with up-to-date, required skills needed to help address the workforce shortage in the industry.

According to Kristin Davis, director of education for Printing Industry Midwest (a not-for-profit trade organization representing the Midwest’s leading print service providers) printers have been struggling to find workers for the past five years. Two years ago, PIM became actively engaged with its members to help develop solutions for the workforce shortage.

“It’s been 10 years since higher education closed its doors on skills-training for the printing industry,” shared Davis. “We don’t have access to high schools and student graduates so we need to find ways to recruit workers for careers in the print services industry.”

Thanks to funding from the Minneapolis Pathways Fund through the City of Minneapolis, the collaborative will provide in-demand education pathways for workers to enter and advance in the printing industry. Employees will benefit from better onboarding of new employees and improve retention, setting new employees up for success.

Avivo and GESMN were selected to partner and combine expertise in training, career navigation, and job placement. Avivo will provide assessments, employer-informed industry training, as well as soft-skills, and work-readiness training. GESMN career navigators will provide outreach, intake, and job placement with printing employers. They will follow students on their training and employment journeys, providing the necessary supports to succeed and enter employment. Both organizations provide strong resources from which to recruit a diverse group of participants –with Avivo’s treatment programs and both organizations’ employment services, with more than 65% being people of color. Avivo and GESMN serve nearly 3,500 diverse individuals combined.

“This really is a workforce solution,” adds Davis. “Printers have had so much trouble for so long finding entry-level workers. They would like to find people who might want careers in print. This is exciting to Minnesota employers -- tapping into a recruitment resource they would never have had the opportunity to access.”

In addition to employer-informed curriculum, workplace readiness training, and career planning and navigation support, students will experience job shadows at partnering employer locations. The training program is approximately three weeks long with the goal of placing 40 individuals into high-demand, entry-level positions with employers in the Twin Cities printing industry. This new initiative will be enrolling participants the first week in July.

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