There is no university degree in "sign making." Most people in this trade either grew up in it, got dragged in by family, or stumbled in via a sales or design role and never left. That is a problem when you are trying to hire, because the talent pool of people who already know the industry is small, and the ones who do know it are usually already working for someone else.
The fix is not to wait for trained sign makers to apply. It is to build a training pipeline of your own: interns from local schools, structured shadowing for new hires, supplier-led product sessions, and industry courses that fill in the gaps. Done right, it turns hiring from a gamble into a process you can repeat.
Why You Should Hire From Outside the Industry
A lot of established shops actually prefer hiring people with no sign experience. The reasoning is straightforward: no bad habits, no legacy assumptions about how things "should" be done, and no expectation that your shop runs like the last one they worked at.
The trade-off is obvious. You carry the full training load. But if you have got documented processes (more on that later), training a sharp outsider often beats retraining someone who is set in another shop's ways. Designers, fabricators and project managers from adjacent trades tend to pick it up fast.
Building an Internship Pipeline
Interns are the cheapest, lowest-risk way to test future employees. You get to see how someone works before you commit to a full-time hire, and they get a paid introduction to a career path they probably did not know existed.
Where to find them in Australia:
- TAFE design, fabrication and welding programs. Most have a work-placement component built into the qualification. Get your shop on their placement register.
- Local high schools with VET pathways. Schools running Certificate II or III in design, engineering or construction often need host employers.
- University design and visual communication courses. Final-year students looking for industry placement are usually the strongest candidates.
- Industry job fairs and open days. Bring samples. A small channel letter, a printed banner offcut, a vinyl-wrapped panel. Tangible work sells the trade better than a brochure.
A few rules that are not optional:
- Pay your interns. Unpaid placements outside formal coursework arrangements are not worth the reputational risk, and they signal the wrong thing about how you value people.
- Give them real work. Filing and coffee runs teach nothing. Pair them with a project manager or designer and let them contribute.
- Treat it as a recruiting funnel. Not every intern becomes a hire, but you are aiming for one or two strong candidates a year.
Structured Shadowing for New Hires
For new staff who are not coming through an internship, the first two weeks should be shadowing, not solo work. A new project manager sits next to an experienced one. A new installer rides with a senior installer. A new designer pairs with the art director before touching a live job.
This sounds expensive because you have got two people on one task. It is cheaper than the alternative: a new hire making rework-level mistakes on a paying client's job in week three.
If you are a one-person shop hiring your first employee, shadowing is harder but more important. You cannot delegate teaching to anyone else, so block the time and accept that your output drops for a fortnight. The payoff is an employee who actually understands how your shop works.
Lean on Your Suppliers for Free Training
This is the most underused resource in the industry. Material suppliers and equipment distributors run training sessions, open days and on-site demos, and most of them are free if you have built the relationship.
What is worth asking your reps for:
- On-site product demos. New vinyl ranges, substrates, lamination films, LED modules. Get the rep to bring samples and walk your team through application.
- Equipment training. If you are considering a new printer, laminator or router, ask the distributor to bring a unit and run a hands-on session before you buy.
- Open house events. Smaller supplier events (usually under 100 people) are where you get real one-on-one time with manufacturers. Food is usually included.
- Application technique sessions. Survey methods, install best practice, troubleshooting. Reps see hundreds of shops and know what works.
The catch: this only happens if you are more than a drop-ship account number. Get your rep into the shop. Let them see what you are producing and where the gaps are.
Industry Associations and Formal Courses
Association membership pays for itself if you actually use it. In Australia, the Australian Sign and Graphics Association (ASGA) runs training, certification, safety courses, and group buying arrangements for the local industry.
What is typically available through industry bodies:
- Safety and compliance training (working at heights, EWP tickets, electrical for illuminated signage)
- Sales and estimating workshops
- Online intro-to-signs courses for new staff
- Group health insurance and supplier rates you cannot access as a single small business
The membership fee feels like a cost until you tally up one safety ticket, one online course subscription, and one supplier discount. Then it is obviously cheap.
Write the SOPs Before You Hire
The biggest leverage point in training is not the training itself, it is the documentation underneath it. Before you hire your second person (or your tenth), write down how each role actually runs. This is the same systems discipline that separates a sign shop that scales from one that stalls, and it is worth setting up from the very start of the business.
For every hat you currently wear, document:
- The role's purpose. What outcome it owns.
- The tasks involved. Daily, weekly, project-based.
- How you complete each task. The actual steps, tools, files, suppliers, templates.
It is tedious. It is also the difference between a business that scales and one where you are the bottleneck forever. A new project manager with a written SOP is productive in two weeks. A new project manager without one is asking you questions for six months.
A good test: if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, could someone open your SOP folder and keep the shop running for a week? If no, that is your next project.
Focus on Sales and Install, Outsource the Print
Training takes time you do not have, and one way to free that time up is to stop trying to do every type of production in-house. Trade printing exists so sign shops can take on bigger jobs without buying every machine and training every operator.
If your team's strength is sales, design and installation, outsourcing the wide-format production, the corflute, banners, mesh, pull-ups, labels and rigid boards, means you are not training staff on equipment that is idle half the week. You quote the job, we print it, your installers fit it.
That also changes your training priorities. Instead of teaching a new hire to run a flatbed, you are teaching them to spec a job properly, brief a trade printer, and QC the delivery. Faster to learn, more transferable, and tied directly to client outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find staff if no one has sign experience? Build a pipeline rather than waiting for trained applicants. TAFE design, fabrication and welding programs, high schools with VET pathways, and university visual communication courses all run work placements and are actively looking for host employers. Many shops also prefer hiring capable people from adjacent trades and training them in-house against documented processes.
Should I pay interns? Yes. Outside formal coursework placement arrangements, unpaid internships carry Fair Work risk in Australia and send the wrong signal about how you value people. Pay them, give them real work alongside a project manager or designer, and treat the placement as a recruiting funnel.
How long should I shadow a new hire before giving them solo work? Around two weeks is a sensible baseline. Pairing a new starter with an experienced staff member costs you some short-term output, but it is far cheaper than the rework, scrapped materials and client damage that come from putting an untrained hire on a live job too early.
Is industry association membership worth it for a small shop? Generally yes, if you use it. The membership fee is usually recovered through a single safety ticket, an online course subscription and a supplier discount, before you even count the networking and group buying access that a solo business cannot get on its own.
How does outsourcing print change what I train staff on? It shifts the training focus from operating machinery to specifying jobs, briefing a trade printer, and quality-checking deliveries. Those skills are faster to learn, more transferable across roles, and tied directly to client outcomes, so your training effort compounds rather than being locked into one machine.
Key Takeaways
- There is no formal pipeline into the sign industry. Build your own through interns, TAFE placements and high school VET programs.
- Pay your interns and give them real work. Treat the internship as a recruiting funnel, not free labour.
- Hiring outside the industry works if you have got documented processes to train against.
- Two weeks of shadowing beats throwing a new hire into solo work in week one.
- Your material suppliers run free training: demos, open houses, equipment sessions. Use them.
- Industry association membership unlocks safety tickets, online courses and group rates that pay for the fee several times over.
- Write SOPs for every role you currently wear before you hire. It is the single biggest leverage point in scaling.
- Outsource production where it makes sense so your training effort goes into sales, design and install, the parts of the job that actually drive margin.
Let Us Handle the Press While You Build the Team
Training people takes focus, and focus is the one thing in short supply when you are also running production. Mediapoint handles trade printing for sign shops across Australia, banners, corflute, labels, pull-ups and the rest, so the time you would spend chasing print is time you can spend onboarding your next hire or closing the next job. Request a quote on your next project and put the production load on us.
