Lock said his goal for the scheme, which is designed to introduce 13-16-year-olds to the world of print and related industries, was to try and get every one of the 350-plus schools involved in the project twinned with a printer.

Lock, who will officially take over after the PrintIT! 2011 awards ceremony, which takes place today in the Royal Hall (see Floorplan, page 6), will replace Canon UK director professional print Wayne Barlow.

 Lock said: "It is an honour to be asked to step into Wayne’s shoes. It is a hugely worthwhile programme and print and paper as industries should be doing their utmost to work with young people, they are the lifeblood of the industry.

"My biggest challenge is to get more schools twinned with printers , at the moment we only have 100 twinned. I will be sitting down with the team next month and setting out some targets, but ultimately the aim is to get every school in the scheme twinned with a printer."

Lock, whose company used Northprint to launch its latest multifunction finisher, the DC-745, added that he would also be working to get more large printers to sponsor the scheme.