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Partnerships: One Path to Training to Ease Talent Shortages

Pick your industry. Some long-timers are realizing that the next generation of expertise their teams require isn’t being groomed as they need it.

Jim George Io Pp Director Of Education

Yet, market conditions continue to change and knowledgeable staff veterans continue to retire. Why the talent gap? Blame continues to be placed on a lack of sufficient budget, a suitable pool of qualified recruits, or even a coordinated plan of action.

Fortunately, we’re starting to hear stories where industrious people are taking their own initiative to make things better. I want to share one such success story in the packaging industry. It started with one individual’s observations that fostered an idea. Momentum accelerated quickly around that idea with the resolve of industry peers having a shared need. The Institute of Packaging Professionals got involved, eventually with an assist from PMMI. The partnership that blossomed has proven essential for the impending launch of a much-needed new training course–but more on that later.

An idea germinates

Let me take you back to the beginning. Six years ago, Jennifer Benolken wanted to develop a packaging engineering group at a former employer in medical devices. But no training course existed with the requisite focus on just that industry segment, and her one-time employer lacked an on-site packaging facility for learning. Furthermore, an existing handbook on medical device packaging was dated.

“I was struggling with my group and didn’t really have anything to give these junior professionals,” says Benolken, today an MDM and Regulatory Specialist in Packaging Engineering at DuPont. Once upon a time, she notes, senior professionals had spare time to coach green recruits on medical device packaging—and junior associates were allowed to learn from their mistakes, because at that stage of their careers, any missteps generally weren’t crucial to the company’s bottom line. Those days are gone. “Now, you’re expected to be perfect from day one,” Benolken says. But today’s senior packaging experts have little or no time to help train them as they go.

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Researched List: Blister Machines for Life Sciences
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Break out of the ordinary: see what’s new in life sciences packaging