My apprenticeship story

by Jo Martin

An apprentice at 25

Who would have thought that at 25 years of age I’d be doing an apprenticeship? Well not me that’s for sure.

Just two years ago I was working as a personal assistant in the car sales industry and found each day rolling into one—I was bored. Then one day while scanning the Sits Vacant in the Whakatane Beacon I found the Mann Printing ad for Apprentice Typesetter. Not one to miss an opportunity I typed up a wee blurb about myself, placed it in an envelope and slapped on a postage stamp.

A few days later I was offered a job with Mann Printing and an apprenticeship in Graphic Communication. I have no complaints about days rolling into one now.

Each day offers a new challenge

At Mann Printing we offer a full printing service including digital colour printing, so I am able to see a job go from an idea on a piece of paper to a bound and finished document all under the one roof.

I work with ten others including two offset printers, one other fulltime and one part time typesetter. Each day offers a new challenge—20 lines of type, two graphics and a photograph to fit onto a single sided 90 x 55 business card, a three page letter to set from handwriting that resembles chicken scratch, Freehand 10, remembering to put trim marks in registration!

Portfolios of my work have been sent to Wellington for assessment.

I’ve gained a lot of knowledge of the printing production process, starting with the manufacture of paper, through to the design and layout of a job, the actual printing and finally the finishing touches.

Always more to learn

It will be strange when I finish my apprenticeship, no more correspondence to send in, no flicking through notes and training manuals. But something that won’t change is that there will always be more to learn as the industry grows and changes. I hope more people take up the challenge of doing a Graphic Communication Apprenticeship—it’s well worth the effort.

Mann Printing is no stranger to apprenticeship training, having previously trained six apprentices. Production Manager David Goile says the company believes it is important to keep young people coming through the ranks. “The company also benefits—Jo is bringing new ideas to the business that will ultimately help us produce better graphics for our clients”, he adds.