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Without the packaging industry, some of the nation’s favourite products would not make it onto and off the store shelves.

Work in the industry is diverse and challenging, and career opportunities are available across the supply chain, from artwork and design, to converting, printing and ensuring goods make it through the supply chain to shops in the right condition and with sufficient lustre to maintain and grow sales.

Packaging is produced in a number of materials and using a variety of techniques.

The main materials are cartonboard, corrugated board, paper, rigid plastic, flexible plastic, glass, steel, and aluminium.

The converting processes vary across materials. For example, the main processes in the rigid plastics industry are thermoforming, injection-moulding and blow-moulding. The different processes require different skills and training.

There are also a variety of printing techniques used in the packaging industry, including offset litho, flexography, gravure and inkjet.

The diversity of materials, conversion processes, printing techniques and end-use markets is reflected in the number of relevant trade associations and sector skills councils, which are the government-backed bodies that determine training priorities in industry clusters.

The most relevant sector skills councils (SSCs) for the packaging industry are:

• Proskills (www.proskills.co.uk), which works in the printing, glass, papermaking and coatings industries. Proskills is consulting on bringing the packaging industry into its remit, although the task has proven difficult because many companies in the industry are represented by other SSCs.

These include:

• Cogent (www.cogent-ssc.com), which serves the polymer, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors, among others
• Improve (www.improveltd.co.uk), for the food and drink manufacturing and processing sectors
• Semta (www.semta.org.uk), for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies

As well as sector skills councils, a primary source of information on training is IoP: The Packaging Society (www.pi2.org.uk), which runs courses for the Diploma in Packaging Technology, Certificate in Packaging, and NVQ Level 2 for Packaging Operators.

It also designs training programmes for companies under the Corporate Partnering scheme, plus specialist courses such as EQIPT for food packaging auditors, which sets out certain hygiene and quality requirements for packaging manufacturers supplying the food industry.

The Diploma in Packaging Technology is a degree-level qualification for packaging professionals. The course is divided into five units, and students must satisfactorily complete all units to gain the Diploma. They can also choose to study individual units if preferred, to gain a Certificate of Achievement.

The Diploma and other courses offered by the Institute of Packaging lead to qualifications awarded by the Packaging Industry Awarding Body Company (www.piabc.org).

Candidates for the Diploma will normally be expected to have at least one A level and five GCSEs at grade A/C, or equivalent, including once science subject, in addition to the key skills of numeracy, communication and information technology, or the Certificate in Packaging.

The Certificate in Packaging covers the major packaging functions to provide students with sound knowledge.

To gain the Certificate, students must complete the core unit and four elective units. Students may also choose to study individual units, to gain a Certificate of Achievement. Candidates will normally be expected to have a minimum of five GCSEs at grade A-C.

A range of trade associations can offer sector- and material-specific careers advice for people wanting to progress in the packaging industry.

These include:

• The Packaging Federation www.packagingfedn.co.uk/
• British Glass www.britglass.co.uk
• Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association www.mpma.org.uk
• British Plastics Federation www.bpf.co.uk
• Packaging and Films Association www.pifa.co.uk/
• British Contract Manufacturers and Packers Association www.bcmpa.co.uk
• British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF).
• Institute of Paper, Printing and Publishing www.ip3.org.uk