Students from schools including Carshalton Boys, Ealing-based Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls and Wallingford-based Meridian visited stands from various print and print education organisations.

London College of Communication, Canon, The Paper Trail and Proskills' PrintIT! were amongst the exhibitors, with talks on the graphics industry, the print industry and print buying taking place.

Paul Evans, project manager of PrintIT!, said: "I thought that the event was really positive and everyone seemed genuinely interested and enthused. The talks also seemed to go down well. There were some initial concerns because of the recession, which may have caused some schools to cut budgets, but overall the turnout was good.

"There seems to be changing attitudes in manufacturing. The companies I've talked to are interested in brining in new ideas and creating career pathways to entice budding staff. They are not just paying us lip service – they seem to genuinely see the value in these schemes."

For more on the challenges of getting young blood into the industry, see next week's PrintWeek.

See also:

Stationers' Hall print management debate highlights

Polestar takes 'proactive' stance at environment conference