A crowd of 400 proud relatives, friends and TAFE students were guests at the Edwardian style, Turner Hall, Sydney Institute Ultimo on the night of September 7 for the annual Graphic Arts awards. As a long time supporter of the event, Printer Magazines, was among the award presenters at the gala occasion, which included a list of companies such as, Heidelberg Australia, CPI Group and The Currie Group.
The Graphic Arts Awards recognise up and coming talent in the graphic prepress, printing machining, binding and finishing and screen printing industries and the remarkable achievements of the TAFE students in these fields over the course of the year.
This year’s event saw 81 awards given to a list of deserved students from across the four disciplines. Among the award winners were, Nathan Woods, for Outstanding Merit in Graphic Arts, Kye Hislop-Dewar, who won the Communications Industry Training Advisory Board Award for an outstanding research assignment across all sections of Graphic Arts and, Abhinesh Prasad, who won the Frank Whitford Award for Special Merit in Printing, Label and Packaging.
Receiving 12 months subscriptions to Australian Printer Magazine in recognition of their application and improvement were, TAFE students, Ben Cavanagh (print finishing), Jennifer Haly (graphic pre press), Matt Williams (printing) and John Ephraim (screen printing).
Fourth year apprentice, Ben Cavangah also received the Printer Magazine trophy for his outstanding achievement across all sections of Graphic Arts. Ben who is on course to finish his apprenticeship next May, says he enjoys printing for its technical side and is pleased that his hard work has been recognised.
“It’s a really good to win this award, I’ve put in a lot of hard work over my apprenticeship and its nice to have it pay off,” he says.
“TAFE is really supportive and there’s some really great teachers there. I tend to have a mechanical mind and there’s a whole side of printing that people don’t really see, a technical side which gets you thinking. It’s also really good to be in a different field to everyone else” he says.
Distinguished guest speaker for the ceremony this year was general manager of Printing Industries Robert Fuller. Fuller says the printing industry needs to change the way it is perceived by the community.
“The industry has an image problem. Printing is so much more than ink on paper, and if I hear that term again I think I’ll go mad,” he says.
“People have to be aware of the convergence between prepress and press. It’s not going away.” “Students these days might be asked to look after a 4 million dollar hunk of machinery and need the skills and the understanding to do this,” says Fuller.
Fuller urged students to understand the investments companies are making to train and nurture them at the beginning of their careers and asked that students be mindful of their attitudes as they enter the sometimes daunting work environment.
“The biggest single problem that employers have with staff is not how clever or skilled an employee is (these things can be lost or gained), but what kind of attitude the worker has,” he says.
“My message to the students is to think about what these companies are investing in you. You might one day start a business which is in direct competition with them, and that’s fair enough, but for the time being you have an obligation to do the right thing by them,” says Fuller.
