7 APPRENTICESHIP COMES TO AN END

College quickly passed and the results of the exams came and I gained my certificates in passing my City and Guilds in print management. I continued to work and learn hard and was able to operate and complete tasks across the whole printing scope. This meant I could typeset, run and print a job, guillotine when the operator wasn’t around for whatever reason. In my 5th year at work I had to retrain to learn a new press – the SB Platen – as below

I believe that the SB Platen is a press that has a solid bed/base in which the forme – the metal frame into which the type for the job in hand is locked in place with quoins. On a Heidelberg platen the paper moves and the forme remains static. On the Platen SB the paper is fed into the machine to go forwards held in place with gripper bars and the type bed moves backwards during each revolution of the cylindrical 360 movement. I didn’t really enjoy this press, but did come to operate it professionally. Approximately 12 – 18 months following the passing of my apprenticeship I took a telephone call at work in which I would take a second job on a part – time basis.

The caller was a Mr. Hirst and I couldn’t place the name immediately, but found out as soon as he mentioned Blackburn college – it was my lithographic teacher. He asked how I would feel about teaching at Blackburn college. I almost immediately refused as I felt I would be incompetent. He asked me if I would at least have a look around, as he felt I was more than competent, and the hourly rate was £12.00 per hour. I agreed and so the teaching began. At first I felt really awkward and inadequate, however in time I gained confidence and actually view this as one of the best things I ever did. I really enjoyed it and felt good for being able to pass on knowledge to others.