"Attract more students in first phase education and stimulate in a much more active way that employees are educated and trained at work. Only in this way we can sustainably achieve our environmental packaging objectives.” This is what Michael Nieuwesteeg from NVC Netherlands Packaging Center says in a nation-wide newspaper supplement, as the packaging sector is preparing to address a number of major challenges in the coming years.

Preparations have also started for the 5th annual conference on HRM and skills development in packaging (Future of Business Education in Packaging, FBEP). This will be held Thursday 14 March 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). NVC (founded in 1953 and based in Gouda, The Netherlands) is the association of companies that recognize the importance of packaging as an activity within the entire supply chain of packaged products. With over five hundred member companies, from retailer to recycler and from food manufacturer to design agency, NVC is a driving force behind the continuous improvement of packaging in the Netherlands and beyond.

"Power to the People!" Packaging is the temporary integration of an external function and a product to enable the use of the product. The world does it a hundred thousand times per second. According to the NVC director, these are just as many opportunities to do it more sustainably. In the case of sustainable development, NVC calls in mind the trinity of People, Planet and Profit. Planet is the Environment, Profit the Money and People, that’s us.

In the NVC vision, People not only are a cause of environmental problems, but also must be able to bring the solution, based on their knowledge, expertise and skills. In addition to environmental problems, there are numerous other challenges that must be tackled together, according to the NVC. For example, packaging will play an important role in improving health care, supporting responsible consumption, facilitating the sustained growth of e-commerce and - last but not least - creating new, more effective supply chains. Life Long Learning by the knowledge workers in the distributive trade, as well as users and suppliers of packaging is essential for this.