Two newspaper printing apprentices – Angelo Gedult of APN Print Ellerslie (Auckland) and Rebecca Fraser of Otago Daily Times Print (Alexandra) – were among finalists in the PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year awards, with Gedult taking the top prize. The presentation night at Sky City Auckland attended by nearly 700 guests followed a selection process involving more than 100 apprentices and trainees. Angelo Gedult represented the reel fed sector and was selected after the initial list of candidates had been narrowed down to seven, representing different sectors of the print industry, all of whom had completed their training in 2009. Among his portfolio was a copy of the ‘Herald on Sunday’ which won the Newspaper of the Year Award at the recent Qantas Media Awards. Earlier Rebecca Fraser had been named for the Digital Processes for Print category. An emotional Gedult told how he had come from South Africa, originally applying for an apprenticeship as a guillotine operator. “I didn’t expect ever to come so far,” he says. “I feel so much for the print industry, and I want to give back to it. This makes me more determined to do so.” PrintNZ Training chief executive Joan Grace said that picking the winners was tough due to the high calibre of the finalists. “In the end, what decided it was a mix of Angelo’s knowledge of technical skills, and his understanding of the role he has in a team of people who produce the newspapers every day,” she says. “He was able to articulate some goals for his future and the steps that he’s going to take to get to those goals. He talked quite a lot about training and training others … ‘what the industry gives you, you have to give back to the industry’ … I think that is a very good quote in terms of somebody who has been given a lot through his work at APN Print, but also now wants to ask ‘what can I do?’” Finalists were treated to a breakfast at Sky City attended by Thomas Ben, winner of TV’s ‘The Apprentice’ programme. The awards are sponsored by Spicers Paper, Fuji Xerox, Heidelberg, Hostmann Steinberg NZ and Aarque Graphics.