Carl Weeks from Hannanprint is the 2014 New South Wales Graduate of the Year, coming out top of the state’s six best nominated printing and prepress apprentices. Weeks says he fell into printing while living in the UK. He tells AP, “A lot of the guys I played soccer with in England were printers, and a job came up at one of their print sites. I thought I’d come along, have a go, and here I am ten years later.”
L-r: Simon Edwards, print manager at Hannanprint; Carl Weeks, LIA NSW Graduate of the Year; Greg Grace, chair of the awards
For Weeks, moving to Australia in 2008 and continuing in print meant going back to Tafe, as printing is not recognised as a trade in the UK. However, learning web litho meant a change of pace from the sheetfed work he had done in the past. After a brief stint at Webstar, he joined Hannanprint to see out his apprenticeship, which winds up in January, though he says he would love to stay on with the company. “Hannanprint are a good company to work for. They invest in their people and look after them,” he says. The working roster of three days on, four days off, also means Weeks gets to spend more time with his one-year-old son. 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. Weeks will now enter the race for the GAMAA-LIA National Graduate Scholarship Prize, a $15,000 award presented biennially; and the Future Leaders Award, offering an expenses paid visit to drupa or Ipex. Last year’s National Graduate Scholarship winner, Samuel Moss from Sydney’s SBM, congratulated this year’s crop of NSW graduates at the presentation dinner in Sydney.
The top NSW graduates for 2014
Moss says, “Winning this award has been life changing for me, and has opened many doors in my career. I am truly grateful to the LIA and all of its members who continue to put this programme together year after year to give graduates like myself valuable learning opportunities and experiences and ensure a strong and successful future for our industry.” Greg Grace, chair of the Awards, adds, “Every year I can’t believe the quality of our young people who are leading our industry forward. “Tafe NSW gives us the names of the year’s highest achievers, or the students they think will be the leaders of our industry. In this year’s judging there was only one or two marks difference within the whole bag of six. That is an amazing achievement.” The 2014 NSW graduates who were competing for the award were: • Carl Weeks, web litho, Hannanprint • Corey Morse, screen printing, Print Hutt • David Purtell, litho web, Rural Press • James Wesley, graphic prepress, Hannanpak • Mitchell Brennan, sheet litho, Hannapak • Troy Kelso, print finishing, Focus Press
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