The International Corrugated Packaging Foundation (ICPF) mission is to generate a stream of increasingly qualified students to enter the corrugated industry, now and into the future.
The
ICPF Long-Range Plan represents the vision for ICPF. The ICPF Board governs an initiative that concentrates on finding the best programs and services to promote, foster, and enhance education to meet the corrugated industry's workforce needs.
During the past decade, ICPF has donated almost $9 million in corrugated equipment (testing systems, presses, rotary die cutters, stackers, dryers, cad systems, sample tables and related equipment) and other resources to advance college and university curriculums to better prepare those students planning to enter the corrugated industry. This year, the distribution of ICPF's third annual
request for proposals will be extended beyond current packaging science programs to include pertinent graphic art and design programs at colleges and universities throughout the country. Selected project proposals that are directed towards expanding knowledge of corrugated packaging and/or its career opportunities, will receive awards with an anticipated average value of $40,000 to $50,000.
In Spring of 2007, ICPF launched its new corrugated curricula.
Access to the curricula through the ICPF web site is available free to packaging, graphic art, design, and flexography faculty and their students and ICPF partners. The corrugated curricula provides a comprehensive overview of corrugated manufacturing, from a brief history to details on production, design, performance specifications, testing processes, and corrugated's role as a cost-effective, high-performance, renewable, recyclable and sustainable packaging choice.
ICPF conducts additional programs to advance student and faculty knowledge of the corrugated packaging industry, and the exciting career opportunities this $25 billion-a-year industry offers. In 2007 ICPF conducted its eighth annual International
Satellite Briefing that was beamed live to students and faculty; its fourth annual
Chair Affair student design competition where winning entries will be displayed this summer in the National Building Museum in Washington D. C.; and its sixth
Best of the Best student run-off competition where student winners from an AICC competition are challenged to “show, tell, and sell” their winning corrugated designs to fellow students via satellite.
Recently, ICPF distributed thousands of its Careers in Corrugated DVD to colleges, universities, and corporate partners. The DVD presented video clips on careers in graphic art, design, architecture, structural design, packaging, engineering, sales, customer service, management, accounting, and production. These video clips are now available under the
Careers in Corrugated section of the web site, making this information accessible to a broader spectrum of students.
