Interview | Julien Vieillard from IUT Evreux

In a few words, can you present the packaging course offered by the IUT at Evreux?   

The University Bachelor of Technology (B.U.T) in packaging is a 3-year degree course offered in only 5 IUTs in France (Evreux, Reims, Chambery, Avignon, Castres). This course is accessible directly after a general or technological baccalaureate and trains assistant engineers in the packaging sector. Students are trained in 4 essential packaging skills: design, packaging approval, industrialisation and supply chain management. This training is very practical as more than half of the training is given in the form of projects and practical work. In addition, this training includes 26 weeks of internship and the possibility of doing part of the course in a company.

You now become a partner of the exhibition, what do you expect from such partnership? 

The PCD event is a unique forum for promoting the latest industrial innovations in the field of packaging. Being a partner of this exhibition will allow our students to attend conferences and to exchange with industrialists in the sector with whom they will work later on. There are very few specialised training courses in the field of packaging, so it is important for us to become partners of this exhibition to make our B.U.T packaging known to industrialists. Indeed, our students today will be their future collaborators. This event will also enable us to forge links with industrialists so that we can propose collaborative projects to our students.

What challenge(s) do you see for the sector? 

The packaging sector is booming.  The new directives of the AGEC law require us to rethink the way we design and use our packaging. The European Union plans that by 2030, all plastic packaging on the market should be reusable or recyclable.  The development of artificial intelligence will make it possible to develop new ways of communicating on our packaging and to ensure the traceability and safety of products.

France is fortunate to have training for packaging technicians and engineers, which is not yet sufficiently recognised by companies. In the future, we would like to strengthen the links between the various Packaging IUTs and the companies that use or produce packaging. To do this, from the start of 2022′ academic year, we will offer different internship or work-study programs lasting at least one year so that young trainees can be a resource for companies to contribute to and advance packaging development projects within companies.