Packaging professional (integrated degree)
- Level
- 6
- Typical duration
- 48 months (about 4 years)
- Max funding band
- £27,000
- End-point assessment
- 6 months
- Route
- Engineering and manufacturing
About the role
Packaging professionals are employed across industry in a range of sectors including automotive, food and drink, medical supplies, pet care, pharmaceutical, and retail. They also work in companies supplying packaging related services. This includes packaging converters, material manufacturers and design agencies.
Packaging encloses or protects products for transport, storage, sale, and use. Packaging professionals work covers the packaging life cycle from concept design, prototyping and testing, through to production management, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement. Key to the role is identifying solutions that improve sustainable practice. They may work on projects by themselves or as part of a team.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a range of different teams, functions, and stakeholders. This includes consumer insights, customers, engineering, finance, legal, logistics, marketing, material and equipment suppliers, procurement, product development, production, quality, and sales. They also have contact with external regulators and organisations such as WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme).
They must deliver functional and feasible packaging solutions to meet the brief. They must take account of technical, operational, and practical limitations including timescales and budgets. Solutions must be regulatory compliant, accessible, inclusive and in line with company policy, procedures, and requirements. They must adhere to ethical principles and the UN sustainability development goals.
How it compares
At 48 months (about 4 years), it is longer than average for a degree-level apprenticeship (the average across all 172 Level 6+ standards is 39 months).
The funding band — the maximum an employer's levy can contribute to training costs — is £27,000, at or above the £21,500 average for degree-level standards. Apprentices never pay tuition either way.
Typical job titles
- Packaging technologist
- Packaging designer
- Packaging development manager
- Packaging innovation technologist
- Packaging manufacturing lead or manager
- Packaging operations manager
- Packaging professional
- Packaging project manager
- Packaging specialist
- Packaging technical sales
- Senior packaging technologist
Entry requirements
Whilst any entry requirements will be a matter for individual employers and higher education institutions, typically an apprentice might be expected to have already achieved GCSE Maths and English on entry.
Entry requirements are ultimately set by each employer — treat these as the baseline, not the bar.
What you come out with
- BSc (Hons) Packaging Professional — Level 6 (integrated degree)
- Professional recognition: Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining — Accredited Packaging Professional
What you'll learn
The official standard defines 13 core duties, 47 knowledge areas, 31 skills, 8 behaviours. This is the actual assessed content of the apprenticeship — worth reading before an interview, because competency questions are usually written straight from these lists.
Core duties 13
- Conceptualise and develop new packaging products and features in response to briefs, requirements, and trends.
- Produce and assess prototypes for materials, formats, designs, functionality, and cost.
- Design and run or support trials to check packaging for suitability and performance under various conditions.
- Develop and manage packaging specifications.
- Conduct or support supplier technical evaluation, selection, and negotiation.
- Monitor and review on-going packaging performance through the product life cycle.
- Identify opportunities for continuous improvement or innovation to stakeholders.
- Identify solutions that improve sustainability.
- Manage relationships with stakeholders, functions, and teams.
- Manage projects.
- Manage or lead packaging development or packaging manufacturing teams.
- Provide packaging technical support to others. For example, internal colleagues, customers, and suppliers.
- Maintain expert knowledge through continuous professional development.
Knowledge 47
- Packaging, purpose and function: information, containment, protection, product promotion and preservation.
- Legislative and regulatory requirements of packaging: environmental, social, and economical sustainability.
- Packaging materials: wood, fibreboard, glass, plastics, polymer, metals, composite, and composite materials; their properties and application.
- Material performance testing requirements and methods.
- Finished pack performance testing requirements and methods.
- Customer and consumer requirements through the packaging lifecycle.
- Consumer testing requirements and methods.
- The interactions between machine, process, materials, and product.
- New and emerging materials and their potential applications at scale.
- Conversion technologies: processing raw materials to end packaging, manufacturing challenges and their solutions - moulding, forming, printing, cutting, laminating, folding, and gluing.
- Filling, packing and labelling processes and systems: form, fill, seal, and collate.
- Project management tools and techniques.
- Financial considerations: budgeting, costing, profit and loss.
- Supplier management: specifications, contractual agreements, procurement, standards for approving suppliers (ethical, quality and compliance certifications), methods of ensuring operational compliance (key performance indicators, scorecards).
- The role of quality assurance and control in packaging; the types of quality checks undertaken throughout the lifecycle.
- Packaging legislation and standards: security and anti-tampering, packaging essential requirements, dangerous goods, packaging waste, good manufacturing practice, and logistic standards. Impact of product specific legislation. Labelling requirements.
- Health and safety considerations. Health and safety regulations: Health and safety management and Health and safety at work. Risk assessment and safe systems of work.
- Research and enquiry techniques: primary and secondary research, quantitative and qualitative, validity and bias.
- Principles of marketing as it relates to packaging: 4 P’s: place, price, product, and promotion.
- Written communication styles and techniques.
- Verbal communication styles and techniques.
- Digital systems, software, and tools used by packaging professionals, GDPR and cyber security.
- Packaging documentation: specifications, technical drawings, protocols, and reports.
- Digital connectivity and smart packaging. Impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on packaging.
- Packaging categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
- The principles of packaging design: functional and inclusive design.
- Graphics in packaging: artwork creation and reprographics, and colour management.
- Printing and decorative technologies and their applications.
- Ethical principles and the UN sustainability development goals: environmental, social, and governance (ESG).
- The potential impact of packaging on sustainable development and strategies to reduce its impact: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, resource consumption, and carbon emissions.
- Environmental impact measurement techniques.
- Design for sustainability; design for recycle and recovery, cradle to grave principles.
- Levers for influencing packaging sustainability; life cycle assessment, customer strategies, and impact of non-government and industry organisations.
- Packaging environmental compliance requirements, trends, and impact on practice.
- Principles of equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Packing development and emerging technologies.
- Value chain analysis and the principles of continuous improvement.
- Fault finding and problem-solving techniques.
- The innovation process. Innovation development techniques. Innovation funding and incentives. Legal implications.
- Characteristics of effective teams. Coaching and mentoring techniques.
- The principles of interpersonal skills: influencing, negotiation and dealing with difficult situations.
- The principles of knowledge sharing, coaching and mentoring.
- Planned and unplanned CPD and recording methods.
- Packaging supply chain requirements: logistics, storage, transportation, and conditions required for packaging components and finished goods.
- Packaging line design and the concept of production efficiency.
- Material waste management though the product and supply chain life cycle.
- The principles of a circular economy and use of circular economy models.
Skills 31
- Generate packaging concepts and ideas.
- Collect, analyse and use technical packaging data.
- Apply procedures for physical measurement and testing of materials and packaging.
- Plan and lead on selecting procedures, and methods for packaging tasks. For example, line trials.
- Apply project management tools and techniques.
- Plan and manage own time.
- Identify costs and create a draft budget for sign-off.
- Identify and apply quality and performance standards. For example, internal, product quality, transit safety, and food safety.
- Apply safe systems of work.
- Carry out risk identification, assessment, and management.
- Identify and manage factors affecting project implementation.
- Use techniques and tools for prototyping, for example process or product development.
- Apply principles of marketing to evaluate and select ideas.
- Apply research an enquiry techniques. For example, market research, consumer testing, desktop research, academic and literature research.
- Communicate written content and prepare technical information. For example, draft and final specifications, purchase agreements, contracts, and technical reports.
- Apply communication techniques to inform technical and non-technical colleagues and stakeholders.
- Prepare and deliver presentations.
- Use digital systems, software and tools. For example, computer aided engineering, business management systems, and palletisation software.
- Assess environmental, social, and economical sustainability factors. For example, life-cycle analysis.
- Identify and apply environmental sustainability regulations, standards, and guidance.
- Apply and promote policies and practices to support equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Apply critical thinking and problem-solving techniques.
- Apply continuous improvement techniques.
- Monitor and evaluate individual and team performance.
- Provide advice and guidance to others.
- Agree objectives with individuals and teams.
- Apply knowledge sharing, coaching and mentoring techniques.
- Build and maintain collaborative working relationships.
- Use negotiation and influencing techniques with colleagues or stakeholders.
- Share and evaluate feedback on individual and team performance.
- Develop and extend professional knowledge.
Behaviours 8
- Take responsibility for own and others health, safety, and wellbeing.
- Positive role model for the packaging profession.
- Prioritise and promote environmental, social, and economically sustainable practices.
- Contributes to equity, diversity, and inclusivity in the workplace.
- Adaptable, flexible, and resilient in challenging or changing environments.
- Collaborate with others for example, within teams, across disciplines, and external stakeholders, promoting inclusion.
- Take responsibility for the quality of work and enable others to work to high standards. For example, proactive, decisive, self-reliant, and motivated.
- Committed to self-development, decisive, self-reliant, and motivated.
Live vacancies
1 live vacancy for this course right now:
-
Packaging Development Technologist Apprentice
Premier Foods · Worksop (S81 7AY) · £23,809 a year
Closes in 7 days (Friday 31 July 2026) · starts 14 September 2026
Live adverts from the government's Find an apprenticeship service, checked 2026-07-24. Closing dates move fast — apply on the official service.
Universities registered to deliver it
1 universities are on the government provider register for this standard. Registration means they can deliver it — live vacancies depend on employer partnerships each recruitment cycle.
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Official sources
- Official standard page (Skills England)
- Registered training providers (Find apprenticeship training)
Occupational summary, duties, knowledge, skills and behaviours reproduced from the ST0637 apprenticeship standard (last updated 2025-06-20) — contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Always check the official page before applying: standards get revised.