1-  Can you tell us a little about your position and activities within the Reims IUT PEC?

I’m Ahmed TARA, senior lecturer and teacher-researcher at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. I have been teaching at the university since 2005, and am currently responsible for the “Ecodesign, Homologation and Supply Chain (ECHSC)” course within the Packaging, Emballage et Conditionnement (PEC) department of the IUT de Reims-Châlons-Charleville, the first university department dedicated to packaging in France, created in Reims in 2000. The PEC department also offers a second course, “Ecodesign and Industrialization”, providing a complementary pedagogical approach to train professionals capable of meeting the environmental, industrial and technological challenges of the packaging sector.
For many years now, my colleagues and I in the PEC department have been actively involved in developing our packaging training courses to meet the current and future challenges facing the industry. Our approach is based on a dual ambition: to encourage educational innovation and to anchor our teaching in a strong social responsibility dynamic.
The work-study program, which has been in place for several years, represents a fundamental lever for professionalization. It enables our student-apprentices to integrate quickly and sustainably into the industrial field, by contributing to concrete, relevant and meaningful packaging projects right from the start of their training.
Our vision is clear: to train, throughout the three years of the Bachelor of Technology program, packaging specialists capable of meeting industrial, environmental and logistical challenges with scientific rigor, technical creativity and a strong sense of ethics.
2. In the course of their studies, your students use National Packaging Council’s documents. What observations can you make about the usefulness of these documents in conveying eco-design and Fair Packaging messages? Can you think of any areas for improvement?
National Packaging Council’s documents are particularly valuable resources for raising our students’ awareness of eco-design issues and the concept of “Right Packaging”. Their clarity, their systemic approach centered on the product/packaging pair, and their regular updating, help to anchor the principles of sustainability in a tangible industrial reality. Publications such as, “L’emballage et le réemploi, L’emballage face aux mutations de la société, Vide & emballages : Le CNE comble un vide, Les ‘allégations environnementales, and the Fiche pratique : Compostage & Emballages”, are regularly used in our teaching to illustrate responsible practices and provide food for thought for our students.
To further enhance their pedagogical impact and capture the attention of the younger generation, a number of improvements could be envisaged: offering more immersive and dynamic formats (short videos such as motion design, testimonials from professionals or former graduates), integrating interactive content accessible via QR codes (mini-games, quizzes, packaging design challenges), or developing a mobile application or dedicated platform, conceived as a genuine playful and intuitive learning space.

3- You’re in direct contact with the younger generation. How do you go about mobilizing energies on a daily basis, so that students aspire to work in this field in the long term?

As a teacher in a department specializing in packaging, I’m in daily contact with a curious young generation in search of meaning and concrete impact. To nurture their interest in the packaging professions, we adopt an active teaching approach, based on concrete, interdisciplinary projects and directly linked to current environmental and industrial issues, thanks to solid partnerships with companies in the sector. Themes such as reuse, eco-design and the regulatory transition brought about by the AGEC law and the European PPWR regulation are at the heart of our teaching approach.
We also mobilize innovative technological tools: more than artificial intelligence as such, it is above all technologies linked to automation, cobotics, traceability, 3D modeling, packaging lines and graphic design tools that capture the attention of our students. These skills are integrated into our teaching through various assignments, visits to industrial sites and numerous professional presentations. Around 25% of our courses are taught by professionals from various packaging sectors, keeping students in touch with the realities and developments in the field.
Artificial intelligence, for its part, is today mainly used by our students as a complementary resource: to explore solutions, structure their projects or enrich their analyses. Our ambition is to gradually integrate these tools in a more targeted way, notably in multi-criteria analysis, simulation or optimization of packaging solutions.
Finally, we regularly organize particularly enriching meetings with innovative companies and players who are rethinking traditional packaging models. These experiences, combined with participative formats such as national competitions (Emballé 5.0, Les Oscars de l’Emballage, etc.) or international ones (Student Starpack, etc.), challenges, creative workshops or SAEs (Situations d’Apprentissage et d’Évaluation), enable us to fully mobilize students’ energy around a sector they discover as innovative, constantly changing and meaningful.

4- How can the CNE, in addition to its network, help you show that packaging is a source of employment, come what may?

The CNE’s cross-disciplinary and unifying positioning plays an essential role in promoting packaging as a job-creating sector. To raise the profile of the sector among the younger generation, several actions could be considered in direct collaboration with training establishments, such as our Packaging, Emballage et Conditionnement (PEC) department at the IUT in Reims.
The organization of a CNE conference, open to students, teachers and industrial partners, would be a fantastic opportunity to present the sector’s major developments, job prospects and future careers in eco-design, reuse, digitalization and logistics. As many meetings are currently held in Paris, this initiative would also enable us to diversify our geographical locations and reach out to other student and industrial areas.
The presence of CNE members (manufacturers, engineers, designers, CSR managers, technical experts, packaging unions, etc.) at round-table discussions or career sequences would enable students to discover concrete career paths, talk to people working in the field, and gain a better understanding of the richness and diversity of packaging careers. These exchanges help to deconstruct certain prejudices and encourage students to get involved in an innovative, sustainable and meaningful sector.
Finally, the CNE could sponsor a national student project, such as a mini-series or web-documentary on the behind-the-scenes aspects of packaging, produced by the students themselves and broadcast on social networks. This immersive format would reach a young audience, promote existing training courses, and extend the CNE’s impact far beyond the campus.