PrintIt! celebrates five years at Ipex
Ipex 2010 will mark a significant milestone for Print It! a pro-skills-led initiative that encourages young people to consider a career in the UK printing industry.
This Ipex sees the culmination of five years of the initiative, which celebrated its inaugural awards ceremony at Ipex back in 2006.
Since then Print It!, which has maintained its partnership with leading charity The Fairtrade Foundation, has engaged over 100,000 students from over 1,000-schools in England, won two awards, gained endorsements from government and royalty, as well as seen the launch of a new version for schools in Scotland.
Since taking over the management of Print It! from Picon in April 2007, Proskills has itself invested over ?500,000 in the project, supplemented by the sponsorship and support gained from industry. Each year, on average, Print It!! costs in the region of ?200,000, of which approximately 25% comes from industry sponsorship, in the form of cash, prizes, advertising, paper, print, in addition to the time taken by printers who ‘twin’ with their local schools as part of the Twinning Programme which remains a vital element of the course.
In addition, the recent restructuring of project resourcing within Proskills has resulted in the creation of a larger project team going forward.
The new Print It! team is led by Jo Chapman, the Proskills education and schools programmes manager. Jo is supported by Jan Cassidy, schools and industry co-ordinator, who will continue to provide the backbone of day to day project administration, and Richard Moore, Proskills industry lead for print and paper, as well as having access to the resources of the Proskills marketing team headed by Terri Jones, head of marketing and communications.
The 2009/2010 Print It!! Awards Ceremony takes place on Saturday 22 May 2010 in Concourse Suite 1 and 2. George Clarke, chairman of Print It!, managing director of Heidelberg and president of Ipex 2010 said, “Having been part of the final Print It! judging panel, I have been extremely motivated by the creativity, talent and understanding of print that these entries displayed, and where better to celebrate this talent and showcase our industry to these youngsters than at Ipex. To know that over 100,000 students have engaged in Print It! and learnt something about our industry can only help our long term goal to improve the image of UK Print plc and encourage this wealth of talent to consider a future career in print.”
