Print Scotland apprentice winner James McCredie on right with award sponsor Joe Chuchla from Muller Martini

James McCredie, 23, from Glasgow, has won the Level 3 Post Press Apprentice of the Year award at the 2019 Print Scotland Apprentice of the Year awards held in Glasgow earlier this month. The award category relates to post pressing work, namely mechanised print finishing.

James, who attended Woodfarm High School on Glasgow’s south side is a Post Press operator for Bell & Bain, one of Scotland’s largest and oldest independent UK books, journal printers and binders.

He is now about to enter the fourth year of his apprenticeship and staying in the print industry is his aim. James was surprised to win. He describes working at Bell and Bain as “hard work and there are no easy days in the business, but I enjoy it.”

The award was sponsored by Muller Martini and James was rewarded with a Samsung tablet and £100 of Amazon vouchers.

Print Scotland, the trade association and voice of Scotland’s graphic communication industry has been holding holds its Scottish Print Apprentice of the Year award for the last four years. The occasion is part of its mission to represent the Scottish print community and to highlight the profile of future leaders of the industry.

James Vallance, training consultant at Print Scotland said: “James’s sterling efforts in getting to grips with the challenges of a rewarding career in the modern print industry have been rightly rewarded.

“His family and friends can be very proud of his achievements. The print industry in Scotland is demonstrating slow but steady signs of growth year-on-year, and nowhere shows this more than in apprenticeships. Already this year our members have taken on 20% more apprentices than last year.”