Tag & Label Manufacturer’s Institute (TLMI) has announced new initiatives that reinforce and expand the association’s commitment to education and workforce development. As part of this new initiative, TLMI is partnering with the Phoenix Challenge Foundation and will be sponsoring three of the Foundation’s events this year including the Phoenix Challenge High School Competition, the College Competition and the Annual Phoenix Challenge Golf Tournament. The Phoenix Challenge Foundation is an organization that promotes the growth of the flexographic printing process in high schools and colleges throughout North America and will be instrumental in assisting the association’s workforce development initiatives moving forward.

In addition to partnering with the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, TLMI announced earlier in the year the formation of the association’s College Advisory Council. The primary goal of the Council is to serve as a collaboration vehicle to promote ongoing dialogue between institutions of higher learning and label industry workforce development efforts. One of the central objectives of TLMI’s College Advisory Council is to build awareness among students to view the label industry as a potential and rewarding career path.

TLMI President Dan Muenzer comments: “Ask any group of label converters what their single biggest business challenge is and most, if not all, will say it’s finding and retaining qualified employees. Our industry is a slice of the greater pie that is the North American manufacturing sector. Like in the greater manufacturing industry, the average age of employees working at label converting companies is high, and many of these employees will be retiring over the next decade. This is going to create a situation where there are more available jobs than there are potential candidates to fill those jobs as younger generations exhibit a preference for careers in non-manufacturing fields such as healthcare, media, tech and financial services. TLMI is making every effort to help mitigate this potential employee crisis in our industry. By partnering with the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, expanding the TLMI Scholarship Program and putting in place the association’s College Advisory Council, we are addressing our members’ needs at every level. We are creating pipelines for potential press operator and pressroom employee candidates as well as potential managerial candidates. This is one of the greatest resources we can offer our membership.”

For more information about TLMI’s workforce development initiatives, contact Rosalyn Bandy at [email protected].