PrintIT! has hosted it’s 2012 Awards at Stationers Hall in London, attracting a host of industry figures, print professionals, finalist pupils and schools from across the UK.
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PrintIT! which aims to open up the world of the Print and Paper and show students, teachers and parents these industries are exciting, dynamic and provide a good career choice, attracted over 9,000 students from 250 schools in the 2011/12 programme.
The PrintIT! 2012 awards which took place on the 6th July celebrated the hardwork, imagination, design and attention to detail of the thousands of students who took part.
Aleesha Patel from Beauchamp School in Leicester was awarded Overall winner of the 2011/12 competition and won a state of the art FujiFilm SLR camera, a Pantone Capsure tool and a two day all-expenses paid trip to The Hunkeler Innovations in Switzerland courtesy of Friedheim, As well as QuarkXPress 9 licence, Pantone essential kit and Fuji Camera for her school.
Aleesha said on winning the award “I was nervous about being a category finalist but to have been selected as the overall winner is amazing. I am shaking. I would like to thank everyone and to all the sponsors, today has been amazing.”
Aleesha’s dad added “What a great initiative PrintIT! is. It’s easy to think about careers such as accounting or medicine but this initiative is opening up children’s minds to other careers out there that are easily dismissed. Today is just fantastic.”
Peter Morris at Friedheim said “The Hunkeler Innovations is a great show, attended by around 5000+ people over the 5 days and every major manufacturer of Digital/Ink Jet kit will be there with their latest offerings which we hope will be a fantastic experience for Aleesha. Also, it nearly always snows which makes it even better and that week is carnival week in Lucerne which adds a bit of spice.”
Tony Locke, Managing Director of Duplo and Chairman of PrintIT!, congratulated all of the finalists of PrintIT! 2011/12 and commented on the importance of the nationwide competition for the future of the print industry, “The Print industry needs young talent and thats why I decided to become involved with PrintIT. The Print industry is an old industry but has changed so much over the last few years and we have run an apprentice scheme for over six years proving that youth works!”
The PrintIT! finalists were selected by a panel of print, media and graphic arts experts that deliberated over who, out of the thousands of participating students, would win each of the competition’s ten subject categories.
As part of the project students were asked to create various designs to suit a print-based campaign promoting Fairtrade products in supermarkets with emphasis on sustainability and environmental issues. As part of the brief students had to show their understanding of different printing techniques and paper sources that could be used in creating their product.
Ian Aspley, General Manager at Proskills commented that “the understanding and ideas put forward by these young people fills me with great enthusiasm of what these students could bring to the industry in the future. It’s great to see that we are developing a new passion for them in Print and Paper.”
This year TJ International a market leading book manufacturing company based in Padstow, Cornwall was nominated by a school and awarded “Best Industry Twinner” for their exceptional commitment in supporting its twinned school (St Ives School) and providing advice to both teachers and students throughout the competition.
Nigel Hawke from TJ International said “Being nominated for this award proves beyond doubt the value of companies and schools working together to promote awareness of each other’s needs. UK manufacturing as a whole urgently needs more schemes like this and at T.J.International we are proud to be associated with the ground breaking Print-It Scheme-long may it continue!’’
Ian Aspely concludes, “PrintIT! and Proskills Schools into Industry Programmes (www.theits.org.uk) are an amazing initiative that raise the awareness of manufacturing to young students and open their eyes and talents to careers they may never have considered. The PrintIT! awards have been a great success and an inspiration. We have had fantastic support from the industry which without we wouldn’t be able to make the programme work but more importantly we all need to work together to inspire the next generation.”
All ten category finalists were presented with a FujiFilm digital camera and their schools received print-related equipment such as Duplo Fasback binder, Xerox Printer, QuarkXPress 9 licence, Xaar digital microscope, Renz Binder and Pantone essential kits.
Peter Schaebbicke, Quark European Channel and Education Programmes
Director, comments: We congratulate all the winners of the PrintIT! Programme for an exceptional turnout and first-class entries to the competition. Thanks to the PrintIT! initiative students across the UK were able to experiment with QuarkXPress to combine their creativity with professional print output, learning skills that will help them to stand out in a competitive job market, should they wish to take up a career in the print and paper industry. In addition to sponsoring this initiative, Quark supports the education sector with very affordable pricing for teachers, students, schools, colleges or universities, who can have access to a professional publishing tool with a discount of up to 90 per cent on the original price.
More info:
www.printit.org.uk
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