At the tenth annual Scottish Print Apprentice of the Year awards, which celebrate the future of Scotland’s printing industry, the top award went to Ines Hiu Wai Law, who was born in Hong Kong and raised in Glasgow from the age of eight.
Having graduated in 2022 from Glasgow University with a Masters of Engineering in Product Design Engineering, she is currently in the final stage of her two-year apprenticeship at Spirit Labels.
She joined the business with no prior print experience, quickly immersing herself in the technical and design aspects of the craft.
Her employer, Laura Roy, praised her as “exceptional” and “remarkable”, noting that she had become a go-to person for many tasks inside the business, despite being an apprentice.
Print Scotland president Susan Graham commented: “Ines has demonstrated that print is still here, present in all our lives.
“It is a renewable resource, it is tactile and people, across the globe, continue to use it every day, not just to inform and entertain themselves, but also to organise their lives. We need to grow our own to manage our own success.”
The winning apprentice said: “I’m very honoured to be recognised for my work with Spirit Labels and to have had the opportunity to design and produce a lot of in-house branding and labelling using Adobe software.
“Seeing my work through from inception to print and then put in place by our customers makes me feel very proud. There are lots of technological developments coming through in the print industry and it is an exciting time to be here.
“My aim is to continue developing my skills while loving the practical element of assignment work I get to undertake, which is much more satisfying than the theoretical element you learn at uni.”
Other winners of the 2025 awards included Press Apprentice of the Year, Aidan Rogan from CCL Design in East Kilbride, who chose to enter the print industry after two years working as plumbing apprentice.
The Post-Press Apprentice award winner was Logan Van Beuge, who works at Glasgow-based Push Print. He is one year into his apprenticeship and is looking forward to learning more.
Mentor of the Year award winner, CCL Design’s Steven McKnight, who has 20 years’ experience in digital print, said: “I greatly enjoy my mentoring role. Aidan has the right attitude and really enjoys his work; digital operations really appeal to the younger generation.”
Finally, Pre-Press Apprentice of the Year went to Riley MacRae Duffy from CX Services in Dunoon.
Garry Richmond, director of Print Scotland, added: “With this new stream of print apprentices present today we can be cautiously optimistic about the future of our industry.
“The print sector has significantly enhanced its support for apprentices in recent years and is definitely seeing the benefit of this forward-looking approach for employers and individuals.
“We urge the Scottish government and its agencies to reinforce our success by continuing to invest significantly to allow us to create more opportunities for our young people.”
Print Scotland provides training for Modern Apprentices through the Scottish Training Scheme, which provides a grant from the Scottish government to cover the cost of the training. It also provides a range of Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) as well as Modern Apprenticeship (MA) certification.
