On the 11th September 2023, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and CLIC Innovation held an Enage4BIO co-creation workshop on training and mentoring under the theme of Sustainable Packaging. The objective of the workshop was to develop ideas and prototypes for concrete education activities, which support the uptake of the Sustainable Packaging regional activities, based on the project vision and strategy, gap analysis results and leaning scenario initiated previously in the project. The findings of the workshop will be incorporated into future training and mentoring design to equip stakeholders for a sustainability transition within the packaging sector.
The workshop participants were 15, representing different stakeholder groups from companies, universities and research organizations, the public sector and civil society.
The workshop was constructed from a short project description and presentation of the learning scenarios and training needs identified earlier in the project. The participants were instructed to identify and suggest new competence and training needs for sustainable packaging using post-it-notes. Each participant presented their ideas to the group, followed by joint discussion. The participants continued to vote on two suggested topics for future training. The final section of the workshop included two brainstorming sessions on how training on each topic would be delivered. The brainstorming session was conducted through a learning café method.
The key takeaways from the brainstorming were two initial training concepts: Sustainability in packaging life cycle, and Packaging materials (accessibility and characteristics). Although the workshop supported in-depth discussions, future work is required to validate the initial training concepts with a wider group of hub participants. Several motivated participants emerged from the workshop to support the validation of the training concepts, which is the next step in developing the trainings. In addition, one of the training concepts will be published as an open education resource.
