Trainers celebrated in awards

The country’s print industry trainers received recognition recently at the PrintNZ Awards Dinner.

The awards dinner welcomed 105 guests and featured addresses from PrintNZ general manager Ruth Cobb and Competenz strategy and trade training general manager Fiona Kingsford. Lisa Hegh of BJ Ball represented the major sponsor Icon Digital Papers.

Once again APN Print New Zealand featured in the awards, taking out the Training Company of the Year Award as recognition of its continuing commitment to apprentices, training and quality.

Dan Blackbourn, operations general manager at APN New Zealand, says, “We have just taken on another five apprentices, so we have a big commitment to the industry but we also want to know we are producing the best apprentices as well. That’s testimony to us having won three Apprentices of the Year and we’ll have another exciting candidate in next year’s awards. It’s about giving them the opportunity to improve and develop.”

Matt Jarvis, from Wickliffe, walked away with the Management Trainee Award. He says, “I have met a lot of great people over the years and had

mentors that have put time into me and it is only fair that I take their knowledge and reinvest it back in others. They have guided and challenged me, given me scope to grow as an individual and to try ideas and see where they can go.”

Tainui Press Design & Print’s Dale Ertel and Interpac Packaging’s Clinton Sampson became joint winnners of the Workplace Trainer of the Year Award. Ertel says, “Training keeps the standards up and keeps improving standards. It is an asset to have someone who has come through an apprenticeship and you can point to them and say, ‘Hey, these are my skilled staff members.’ As a business owner, I have always taken on apprentices. There is nothing better than training them yourself.”

Sampson says his firm has successfully revamped its training programmes in recent times. He says, “I am proud to say I’ve just had two apprentices pass and have another five on the books all doing really well.

“When I came to this company, no staff members were trained. In one of the departments, generally when someone left we would need to advertise and get someone in but one of the guys just left and we took another of the guys we’ve been training up and put him straight in. It is an awesome story.”

Apprentice of the Year finalist Poppy Sparrow received the GAPF Scholarship as the top Digital Processes for Print apprentice. She says, “I am a complete print nerd, so to win this is mind blowing and brilliant. I think it becomes a passion when you can’t turn it off, it’s with you all the time. It’s every billboard you see; every small sticker on a bumper when you’re stuck in traffic. You start analysing everything, saying, ‘That margin’s not big enough,’ or ‘It’s trimmed terribly.’”

Adhesif Labels’ Layton Armstrong received the Jenkins Award for the top label printing apprentice. He says, “I love training and I love learning. I really enjoy being involved in a sector that is so innovative and forward-moving. It is exciting to see that I’m involved in something that has a future.

“There is a passion there and every day I know that when I turn up there is going to be something new to do. We are constantly learning and that’s a good thing.”

Pictured above, from left: Fiona Kingsford, competenz; Dan Blackbourn, APN; Lisa Hegh BJ Ball; and Phil Ost APN

 

GO TO MORE NEW ZEALAND NEWS