High Standard Of Entries For PrintIT! Competition

Students entering the second year of PrintIT!, the UK printing industry-wide educational initiative to attract youngsters in to a career in print, have generated a high standard of entries.

Students entering the second year of PrintIT!, the UK printing industry-wide educational initiative to attract youngsters in to a career in print, have generated a high standard of entries.

That is according to the panel of industry figures judging the work submitted for the second year's competition.

Feedback from the judging panel reports that the standard of entries is higher than the first year, with students demonstrating a clear and stronger understanding of the practicalities and opportunities of modern printing processes.

Martyn Elmy, chairman of PrintIT! and one of the six final judges, said: "It has been extremely encouraging to have received so many entries of such a high standard from schools right across the country.

When we began sifting through the work, it became evident that the students had put an enormous amount of effort in to their entries and that many youngsters had gone the extra mile and spent a great deal of their own time working on their PrintIT! submissions." This year, the students and teachers from the shortlisted teams will be invited to attend an awards ceremony at the Stationer's Hall, London.

The ceremony, to be hosted by BBC six o'clock TV news presenter George Alagiah, will mark the conclusion of the Stationers' Educational Charity Annual Careers Day.

The winning students and schools from seven different award categories will be presented with individual prizes for each student, as well as a print-related prize for the winning schools.

As in year one, the students and teacher named overall winners of PrintIT! 2007 will also be announced at the ceremony, and they will be presented with a trip to visit Fairtrade banana plantation growers in the Windward Islands.

Elmy explained: "A huge amount of work has been put in behind the scenes by a number of individuals, as well as our key partners, sponsors and supporters, which represent every facet of the industry.

Without their help PrintIT! would never have taken off and continued to attract the high level of interest and good will it does.

We are confident that some of these bright and talented youngsters, who have become involved in PrintIT!, will take up careers in print because of that involvement, in which case the long-term PrintIT! initiative will have succeeded and the industry will be all the better for it." The PrintIT! team is also able to combine the awards ceremony with the Stationers' Annual Careers day, giving the students an opportunity to see presentations and 'hands-on' demonstrations of printing techniques, meet some of the organisations and associations that shape the industry and have access to careers advice on how to make print their future careers.

PrintIT! was created and led by Picon, working in close collaboration with lead partner The Educational Charity of the Stationers' and Newspaper Makers' Company, as well as other key partners The Britjsh Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), Robert Horne Group, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) and the Fairtrade Foundation.

The final judging panel for PrintIT! Year Two entries consisted of Martyn Elmy, chairman of PrintIT! and director of sales and marketing at Russell Webb, John Brazier, chief executive officer of Picon, Neil Goodman, creative director of Direct Design, Steve Wicks, PrintIT! project manager, Lynette Aitkin, schools co-ordinator at the Fairtrade Foundation and Kevin Dewey, chairman of trustees for The Educational Charity of the Stationers' and Newspaper Makers' Company.

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