Taunton, Massachusetts-based Harpak-ULMA has announced that its Packaging Academy has been accredited by the International Accreditors of Continuing Education and Training. As a result, participants completing academy coursework are eligible to receive professional Continuing Education Units.
Harpak-ULMA Packaging Academy is the first and only packaging industry vendor to achieve this status.
IACET is a standard-setting organization approved by the American National Standards Institute for continuing education and training. Its validation of training policies and processes against an ANSI benchmarked framework assures that the provider is committed to learning process excellence, continuous improvement and a superior learning experience for adult learners.
A standards-based approach to professional training offers the additional benefit of supporting recognized Continuing Education Units for Learners. CEUs are transferable between cooperating organizations since they confer an assurance of quality content programming and standards-based record keeping. IACET has accredited more than 545 continuing education providers across multiple industries and organization types.
“The accreditation is an important milestone to the Academy – as well as the packaging industry,” said Cliff Fitzgerald, manager of Harpak-ULMA’s Packaging Academy.
”Knowledge transfer is essential to the success of every automated packaging solution – but it’s too often an afterthought for some OEMs. The quality of the training has a direct and measurable impact on a customer’s packaging operations effectiveness and cost. We aim to improve staff learning curves while dramatically improving applied knowledge retention. A standards-based training program is the solution — requiring a strategic commitment and formulaic investment in people, processes and tools to deliver a scalable, sustainable and successful training experience.”
While accreditation is often seen as the domain of independent instructional institutions, the Harpak-ULMA team hopes that more equipment suppliers will follow its lead as today’s increasingly smart “industry 4.0” solutions drive demand for well-trained operators and maintenance staff.
“We offer end-to-end training around specific packaging line configurations, as well as a variety of content that targets production optimization, equipment sustainment, hygiene standards, and safety practices as they apply to our solutions,” Fitzgerald said.
He noted that the academy is incorporating augmented reality as a training tool as “we fully expect to commercially introduce optional AR-enabled monitoring and servicing capabilities across many of our smart, connected packaging platforms in 2023.”
For more information about Harpak-ULMA Academy, visit bit.ly/HUPAcademy. To experience live smart machine demonstrations, visit Harpak-ULMA at The Boston Seafood Show, March 12-14 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
