Building competency of packaging industries’ employees, other professionals university students – a WPO initiative

Ammam in Jordon was the city which was the recipient of the first WPO packaging training programme. The programme was held from 3-7 March 2019 and received total support
of local member, JoPack (Jordan National Packaging Center), represented by its executive director, Sujud Al-Balawneh, and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization).

“The purpose was to increase and develop pro- fessional knowledge and competency of packaging industries ́ employees, other professionals in related industries and also university students,” states WPO vice president Education, Aslihan Arikan, from Turkey.

The five-day regional packaging technology training in Ammam saw 23 delegates across Jordan, Palestine, Oman, Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon. The trainer was WPO ambassador Kishan Singh, from South Africa, who covered the entire spectrum of packaging technology. “The delegates from different Arabic countries seemed very keen to learn as much as they could regarding packaging. There were numerous questions, discussions and complete delegate participation”, celebrates Kishan.

WPO vice president conferences, exhibitions and awards, Soha Atallah, from Lebanon, was also present during WPO activities in Jordan.

The training in Jordan falls under a joint capacity of building interventions, aiming at strengthening the packaging industry in member state countries through enhancing innovation and technology transfer, is what UNIDO prescribed. For this reason, the program was complete and covered a number of topics, including the functions of packaging, packaging materials and machinery, labelling and intelligent packaging, addressing global packaging challenges and highlighting the latest technologies. The program also supported knowledge transfer, foster packaging innovation and enhance synergies and collaboration among countries of the region.

WPO training in Jordan was part of a number of interventions UNIDO is implementing under its “Enhancement of regional trade capacities in food through harmonised regional conformity assessment and food safety systems”. It is called SAFE, a Sida-funded project implemented by UNIDO. Those interventions are built on UNIDO’s successful track record in packaging and are performed in close partner- ship with WPO.

The partnership between UNIDO and WPO dates from November 2017 when the parts concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation to provide tailored packaging interventions in three main strategic areas of cooperation: development and implementation of specialized training and capacity building programs on packaging; setting-up national packaging centres; and promotion and organisation of student and industry competitions.