Apprentice opportunity opens in far north

Design & Print Direct proprietor Mark Neal was among the estimated 800 people who attended the 12th Pride In Print Awards, where the country’s elite print jobs, in areas as diverse as business forms and annual reports, labels and packaging, were recognised by industry leaders.
Mark was there primarily to see his apprentice Sarah Gorman reach the finalists for the national Apprentice of the Year Award. But having seen the reception the industry’s peers gave to the apprentices, he decided to hire another.
“Having had Sarah do so well was thrilling for everyone at Design & Print Direct and I am very proud of what she achieved. This was the first Pride In Print Awards I had attended and I was blown away by the presentation of the whole event.
“Especially interesting to me were of course the Apprentice Awards, but I was equally impressed by the Pride In Print Awards and I decided that I would set a goal to enter into the awards sometime in the future.”
Mark said the awards reinforced his belief in playing a part in creating new employment opportunities.
“Talking with some of the other apprentices and seeing the calibre of people who made the finals made me realise what an important part these young apprentices do play, and will play in the future of the print industry.
“I know there seems to be a shortage of qualified tradespeople across many trades — in Whangarei we definitely have a more ‘mature’ age range of printers and having done an apprenticeship myself (not in printing) I feel that we have a responsibility where we can, to participate in training young people to carry on in the industry.
“We have recently employed another qualified sheet-fed printer and now I feel that my two printers would have a lot to offer an apprentice.”
Design & Print Direct have had discussions about the Level 2 National Certificate Training Programme and the Apprenticeship Training Programme and have now gone out to local high schools looking for candidates.
“We may bring someone in first through the Gateway programme that the schools offer just to make sure that they are happy with this career choice and to also make sure that they would be suited to the job from our point of view. I would like to be able to start someone by the beginning of September.”
Mark said that combining the Pride In Print Awards with the apprentice awards was a great idea.
“The apprentices are treated really well and kept busy with their interviews, the breakfast, rehearsals and socialising! I think having been to one of the award ceremonies now that it is obviously important to showcase and to recognise people and businesses who have produced exceptional results, and I am sure that there is a lot of positive mileage to be gained by the winners.”
Mark started his business at home seven years ago, originally doing foil and pad printing, then moving into design and digital printing when he employed Sarah.
He bought an existing offset printing business nearly three years ago, Rossitter Print, which had been established in Whangarei for 35 years.
The business was rebranded as Design & Print Direct with an emphasis on teamwork geared towards high-quality output. The business has grown from a combination of improved design which has brought in much new work, quality of printing and investment in new digital printing equipment.
Design & Print Direct now has a team of six — two printers, two graphic designers, a bindery person and an administration person – working under Mark.
The company is A3 based and covers all the traditional printing areas such as graphic design, branding, business stationery, offset printing and digital.