Myra Anderson of printing.com has taken out this this year’s PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year title.
She received the prize at last week’s on stage during the annual Pride In Print Awards held at the New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch.
Accpeting the award, she said, “I have dreamt about standing on this stage since I started my apprenticeship and now that it is here…Wow.”
“She congratulated her fellow finalists and thanked PrintNZ, Competenz and sponsor BJ Ball. She showed appreciation for the support she received and thanked printing.com boss Lawrence Evans and her own mentor Simon Yendoll. She added. Also thank you to Sue and Promote Limited for putting on such a kickass evening.
“To all trainees who are starting in the industry: don’t settle for average. Don’t settle for mediocre. Be the best that you can be.”
Interviewed later she says, “OMG, it’s so incredible. They have put on such a show and it has filled me with such pride for the industry.”
She praises her chief executive Symon Yendoll for passing on his wisdom and the printing.com team for their overall support, adding that she enjoyed the stimulation and challenges provided by the apprenticeship process.
She says aspects of colour management, business and quality principles gave her a grounding of how business actually runs. She says, “The apprenticeship has opened my eyes, not just to print but to how the business is run as a whole, which is great. It has been the making of me.
“We’re looking at a Level 4 Certificate of Business this year and 2018 will be the Diploma of Print Management. We’re also looking at creating my own senior role within the company.”
A long-term supporter of apprenticeships, printing.com chief executive Symon Yendoll says, “Her portfolio and what she’s done over the past four years has just blown everyone away. The hardest thing was to get her to talk herself up, she’s actually very humble.”
He recalls working through the business principles exercise with Anderson. He says, “We spent ages doing a whiteboard session and really getting into how profit and loss works. It was actually really good — it’s made a real difference in how Myra thinks.
“What she’s done from that is introduce a lot of initiatives for the studio, such as counting time and putting it against jobs. So she really understands the relationship of how long it’s going to take to do something to cost-effectively be able to produce a job.”
Ruth Cobb, general manager for PrintNZ, says manager Ruth Cobb says judges dealt with one of their most challenging decisions to date given the extremely high calibre of entrants this year. She says, “Myra ultimately triumphed and is a very deserving winner — the breadth of the work she has produced is absolutely outstanding
“She has talked about how coming into the industry has opened her eyes about what print is and how much we use it in our world, how varied it is and the opportunities that she has seen exist within the industry.
“Myra is an excellent winner.”
