Four apprentices honored with Apprentice of the Year award

The occasion is part of its mission to represent the Scottish print community and to highlight the profile of future leaders of the industry.

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 program.”

McKenzie said: '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'

The winners of the 2022 Apprentice of the Year Awards were:

• Overall Apprentice of Year – Christopher Dinnes, Captivate Creative, Livingston
• Post Press Apprentice of the Year - Craig Knight, FLB Group, Dalkeith
• Press Apprentice of the Year – Hazel Linden (joint award), J Thomson Colour Printers, Glasgow
• Press Apprentice of the Year – Kyle Clark (joint award), J Thomson Colour Printers, Glasgow

Susan Graham, Print Scotland’s president, congratulated the winners and wished them highly successful careers as the industry’s leaders of tomorrow.

She 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.'

Print Scotland provides training for Modern Apprentices through the Scottish Training Scheme, which provides a grant from the Scottish Government to cover the cost of the training. It also provides a range of Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) as well as Modern Apprenticeship (MA) certification.