Craig Brown, chairman of the BSGA, on what he found when he sat on the panel for The Printing Charity’s 2026 awards
I went into the judging process expecting to be impressed, and the 2026 Rising Star applicants did not disappoint. The young people sitting in front of me were sharper, more articulate, and more ambitious than I had imagined.
The Printing Charity’s Rising Star Awards have been running for 17 years, offering grants of up to £1,500 to people aged 18 to 30 working anywhere in print and allied trades, signage included, to spend on training and development of their own choosing. In 2025, 78 people won, and the 148 courses they collectively pursued represented a 41% increase on the year before.
What the applications actually tell you
Reading through the submissions before the interviews, I noticed something. These are not people waiting to be told what to do next. The signage applicants came in with clear ideas about where they wanted to take their careers. They had already identified the gap in their own development. The grant was simply the means to close it. That kind of self-awareness is not something you can teach, and it is what makes these awards worth taking seriously rather than filing under ‘nice initiative.’
We talk a lot in this sector about skills shortages and attracting the next generation. We talk about it at every trade show and in every association meeting. The Rising Stars programme is where something actually happens as a result. If you run a sign-making business and you have someone on your team under 35 who is clearly going somewhere, do them a favour and make sure they know this scheme exists.
Craig concludes, “The talent is there. It has always been there. And schemes like this are exactly how we hold onto it. Every business in the sign and graphics industry should be putting candidates forward.”