Clifford was awarded a gold medal and will be invited to spend two weeks at Heidelberg’s show room in Germany next year.
He said the competition was stiff and it was not decided until the final round. "I think I won by four points. It was only in the last round when we had to do a five colour job as consistently as possible that I managed to win it," he said.
Clifford added that not everyone was guaranteed a job in today’s economic climate. "Hopefully, having this on my CV and having trained in Heidelberg will give me the edge," he said.
The competition took place at the NEC in Birmingham, with more than 650 apprentices across all of the industries taking part. Among the tasks the four competitors in the print section had to complete were running four- and five-colour machines, using a guillotine and mixing inks and testing water for pH levels and conductivity.
Clifford has been at Stirland Paterson for six years. He started in warehousing and packing, then moved on to guillotining and two years ago became a press apprentice.
Judges at The Skills Show included representatives from Sappi, Vision in Print and the BPIF, as well as Martin Cusack, image and media manager of X-Rite.
"This show highlighted just what an asset apprentices are to our industry. All of the contestants’ work was outstanding as they channelled their knowledge and enthusiasm," said Cusack.
Sappi supplied paper for the event and X-Rite offered its Easy Track spectrophotometers for use in the judging process. Heidelberg supplied a Speedmaster SX 52-5 five-colour press, a Polar 78 guillotine and Saphira inks.
Mark Hogan, marketing director of Heidelberg UK, said: "Our industry needs to attract and retain young people by showing what an innovative, creative and exciting business print is and that it offers a great career. The four participants were each a credit to their company and to our industry."
