Hannanprint apprentice wins NSW LIA award

Hannanprint web litho apprentice Carl Weeks has won the LIA NSW Graduate of the Year Award and says he hopes to climb to the top of the industry over a long print career.

Weeks beat out five other talented finalists put forward by their TAFE teaching staff as the ‘pick of the bunch’ in their area of offset print and finishing, with the winner chosen by a judging panel of LIA members.

Weeks had been working at Hannanprint for three months as an offsider after a bad experience at his previous print employer, before he heard about becoming an apprentice.

“Hannanprint gave me lots of confidence to put my name forward and were always supportive when I wanted to show initiative and share new ideas,” he says.

[Related: More awards news]

Weeks won the award over fellow apprentices Corey Morse for screen printing at Print Hutt; David Purtell for litho web at Rural Press; James Wesley for graphic prepress at Hannapak; Mitchell Brennan for sheet litho at Hannapak; and Troy Kelso for print finishing at Focus Press.

Weeks, whose apprenticeship ends in January 2015, was a newspaper printer in England for five years before deciding to spend a year travelling in Australia with his wife. They both ended up getting jobs, starting a family and eventually getting citizenship.

As printing is not a certified trade in the UK, if he wanted to be more than an offsider he would have to undergo the four-year apprenticeship, but Weeks does not regret his chosen industry one bit.

“It’s a great industry to work in, you couldn’t do worse as a young tradesman,” he says.

“The money is great if you’re at the right company, the working hours are compatible with having a family and you come home feeling like you’ve done an honest day’s work.

“I’d recommend Hannanprint’s program to anyone thinking of getting into printing.

I’d love to work here for the rest of my career. It’s a family-oriented workplace and people don’t leave very often.”

Weeks says the award has just spurred him on and if he can secure a full-time position after graduation he hopes to climb to the top of the management food chain

[Related: More Hannanprint news]

Hannanprint general manager Adrian O’Connor says he is proud of Weeks and considers the award a vote of confidence for Hannanprint’s training program, which has eight apprentices in NSW alone.

“It’s a great recommendation for our investment in apprentices and training junior staff,” he says.

“We have always had a big focus on training apprentices rather than only bringing people in from elsewhere to the industry. New blood is good for printing and we are doing our part to add talent to it.”

Executive director of Two Sides Australia and the Australian Catalogue Association (ACA), and former Geon executive, Kellie Northwood gave a keynote address to the Heidelberg-sponsored evening’s attendees at the North Ryde RSL.

She encouraged them to spread the word about print’s effectiveness and green credentials, changing the conversation from defensiveness to proactive engagement.

Weeks, along with winners from other states, will be flown to the LIA’s biennial conference where, apart from active participation in the conference program, they are interviewed by a national judging panel to select one for the $15,000 GAMAA-LIA National Graduate Scholarship Prize.

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