Soap Box Blog: Lots of big talk – now invest in the people

On an almost daily basis, we are told that there are new government initiatives for waste minimisation, or one supermarket or another is backing packaging waste reduction, or a company has reduced this or that. What is often lost among this whirlwind of PR is that all these ideas depend on one central resource, people. It is individuals or teams of people – experts in materials, packaging design and manufacture – who will deliver these new products, processes and materials.

As an industry, we need to take the development of people seriously. The UK packaging industry employs tens of thousands of people directly and tens of thousands more indirectly, producing 10 million tonnes of packaging annually that is vital to the distribution and sale of millions of products. Yet, in relative terms, the number fully trained in packaging is very few.

The Institute of Packaging, now known as The Packaging Society, has for many years run a degree-level course, the Diploma in Packaging Technology. This, along with other courses form a suite of training opportunities that provide high-level packaging knowledge, along with access to some of the leading experts in the industry, yet they only educate a 100 or so people every year.

Why is this? Part of the issue is that despite a public acceptance of the importance of packaging, it is often only seen as an adjunct to the product itself. Most companies are extremely reliant on the expertise of their suppliers when it comes to packaging, which makes it hard to develop proper specifications. How are manufacturers going to be masters of our own destinies when government targets are brought to bear if they don’t have expertise in house? And how are packaging companies going to develop the next generation of products if they don’t have the skills to innovate?

Another part of the problem is funding. Lots of money is available for NVQ level training, and rightly so. The focus has been about developing the skills of production line operatives, and everyone supports that. So where’s the money for the higher levels? If a company doesn’t pay for a Diploma in Packaging Technology, the student is looking at over £2000. Times are hard, maybe, but that higher-level employee will be the one who will repay that investment by driving new developments.

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