PRINT Scotland has honoured four apprentices in its seventh annual Scottish Print Apprentice of the Year awards.
The occasion is part of the organisation’s mission to represent the Scottish print community and highlight the profile of future industry leaders.
The Overall Apprentice of Year award went to Christopher Dinnes, from Captivate Creative in Livingston. Christopher, from Armadale in West Lothian, is in his second year doing SVQ Press at SCQF Level 3 in the company, which specialises in short run digital printing, signage, banners, flags, exhibition products, and branded merchandise.
He said, “I’ve never really realised the variety that comes under the heading of print. So far, I have been involved in digital, wide format and finishing. I now want to progress my skills and get to point where the work produced is as good as it can be. In five years, hopefully, I would like to be in a management position, leading other employees and apprentices and sharing opportunities with other young people like me.”
The recipient of the Post Press Apprentice of the Year award was Craig Knight, from FLB Group in Dalkeith. Hazel Linden and Kyle Clark, both from J Thomson Colour Printers in Glasgow, were joint winners of the Press Apprentice of the Year award.
Susan Graham, Print Scotland’s president, said, “Once again, we salute these outstanding young print apprentices and continue to celebrate their achievements in acquiring future-proof skills to take Scotland’s print industry forward. The print industry in Scotland has a real future across a range of skillsets and needs a constant flow of high-quality and motivated apprentices in even greater numbers, and from an increasingly diverse range of backgrounds, to fulfil its potential.”
Garry Richmond, director of Print Scotland, said, “We continue to believe that the industry needs to employ more apprentices to sustain Scotland’s print sector. Our approach includes doing so by encouraging more apprentices from an increasingly diverse range of backgrounds. These awards recognise outstanding achievement amongst the young people who represent the next generation of our leaders of Scotland’s print sector.
“Print Scotland’s sincere thanks goes, once again, to our sponsors David McGinlay of Muller Martini and Stephen Paul of Antalis for supplying the prizes. I should also like once again to express our debt of gratitude to Jim McKenzie of Ultimate Learning Solutions who has done a tremendous job in his new role as assessor of the Apprenticeship Awards programme.”
Jim McKenzie added, “It is a great pleasure to be involved in the work-based learning apprenticeship scheme which sees young people learning trade and core skills that will stand by them for life.”
