Rising Stars

Abigail has recently been promoted and assists six commissioning editors across three of Bloomsbury Professional’s lists, covering law and tax in Ireland, Scots law, and English and Welsh law. Titles range from handbooks, loose-leafs and journals to online resources covering a variety of practice areas such as family law, cyber law and banking and finance law.

Presenting her own titles now forms a key part of her role and she wants to develop her presentation skills via the Rising Star Award.

She will take the RADA Business Presenting Made Brilliant training programme, which offers core skills to people who have minimal presenting experience and lack confidence in their ability to effectively present to more senior colleagues. She will also invest in a course covering Generative AI and the legal and ethical issues surrounding it, to support her learning in a rapidly evolving area.

Carys has a wide-ranging role covering planning and implementing social media campaigns, designing attractive e-flyers and newsletters and live posting at literature events in order to promote New Writing North’s programme of literature opportunities.

She took up her current role in March last year following a digital marketing internship and time as a Finance and Operations Assistant, both at New Writing North.

She has selected three courses to boost her skills: Lead and Manage, a face-to-face leadership course aimed at people working in social change; Planning and Optimising Marketing Campaigns from CIM; and Digital Marketing Content Creation from the Open University.

She believes this combination will give her the confidence to take on new responsibilities and challenges.

Cherrelle has worked at Citipost Mail for nine years in a range of roles and currently leads a team responsible for managing supplier relationships and ensuring the smooth delivery of services to Citipost’s clients. The role builds on her previous experience in the parcel and packet segment of the business and as a Key Account Co-ordinator.

Her Rising Star Award will be invested in a Data Marketing Analytics training course with the Data & Marketing Association, helping her gain valuable insights and skills in leveraging data analytics to drive marketing strategies and decision-making.

She also plans to invest in public speaking training, to back up her writing skills with additional confidence when it comes to delivering presentations and speaking in public settings.

Ella currently works at the London East site for Precision Proco, leading the team that scans, quality checks, packs and ships out orders as well as playing an active part in training new and existing staff.

She joined the company in November 2021 and has since been trained in the packing department and case-binding as well as learning a new machine, the Flashcut.

Her longer-term career goal is to move into the marketing side of the print industry. She will use her Rising Star Award to start her on this path, by investing in two Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) courses: Writing for Content Marketing and B2B Marketing: the Complete Guide, which together will help her expand her marketing knowledge and creative ideas.

Jack works within the Client Solutions area at Paragon, working on commercials and assisting clients with understanding their requirements and needs. No day is ever the same, he says.

He has worked across the business, spending time on the Client Services Team and as a Solutions Analyst and Business Analyst before taking up his current role.

His award will be spent on two courses: Professional Negotiation Skills by LDL, and DISC Certification (training to learn about the principles behind DISC, a model of human behaviour based on four dimensions – dominance, influence, steadiness & conscientiousness), covering Strategic Planning, Professional Negotiation Skills and DISC.

Melissa has risen from Pre-Press Apprentice to qualified Reprographics Operator within a growing Pre-Press department in the year-and-a-half she has been with Compack. Last year she completed her apprenticeship before starting her current role as Reprographics Operator.

She plans to use her award to study the Prince2 Agile Foundation and Practitioner course and certification. This will help her progress her career in Pre-Press Management as the role requires control of a lot of different customers and internal projects all at once, allowing her to manage her workload better and gain confidence.

Natassja has been working as an Estimator in the department of Print and Creative Services at The University of Sheffield since the start of 2022. With a degree in Fine Art, she’s ambitious to get involved in the design and illustration elements of the print and packaging industry.

She plans to spend her award on the Blue Sky Graphics Digital Illustration course, ensuring that she can properly manipulate images using vector-based software. By learning advanced graphic illustration on Adobe Illustrator, she hopes to be able to help fill the current digital illustrations skills gap within the organisation’s Print and Creative Services team.

Sonja jointly manages the Print Workshop facilities and provides Print Inductions and technical support at Inbristol Studios. She is also one half of Blue Roll Press, a mobile printing duo with a mission to bring printmaking to the public in a playful and accessible way.

A 2015 graduate of the Illustration BA at Falmouth, Sonja recently completed an MA in Multidisciplinary Printmaking at the University of the West of England.

She plans to spend half her award enhancing Blue Roll Press’s ability to earn a steady income by buying the equipment needed to cope with larger corporate workshops, including new tools for lino, drypoint and monoprinting as well as investing in publicity.

The other half of her award will be spent to enhance her personal career as a printmaking artist, paying for membership of Spike Island Print Studio, entry fees into exhibitions and open calls, and on ink, paper and advertising for a solo show.