Mitsui Chemical Asia Pacific senior executive of marketing food and packaging sales, and marketing centre Darell Chung is the first person in Singapore to be CPP certified.
The Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) designation for the industry is offered exclusively through the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) in Australasia, in partnership with the IoPP, making it an international recognition of industry proficiency and achievement in packaging.
World Packaging Organisation (WO) president Pierre Pienaar was the first CPP accredited professional for the Australian region.
Chung said he applied for the CPP designation for his professional development and to get to know more people within the industry.
“Additionally, I wanted to review the course on my company behalf, I found one of the important portions of the CPP was the resume, and keeping it relevant. This would be useful to ensure that our staff maintained updated knowledge in the packaging as well as open more avenues for them to meet with members in the packaging field,” he said.
“I have been in the industry for 10 years and excluding my education in polymer technology, my areas of specialty mainly revolves around barrier packaging for food applications. I am really happy that I can share a path that so many respected members of the industry have taken.”
Chung mentioned that the accreditation is an important designation for the greater recognition of new people in the packaging industry.
“Once the Industry accepts it as a standard in the region, the recognition will soar. I’m glad that the AIP has brought this course to the region. I have known about the CPP for several years already, however last I knew it was mainly a US thing. That did not have as much meaning in this region. Now however, this situation has started to change,” he added.
“I would think the CPP designation would be a constant reminder to keep the information that you know relevant and if possible, encourage contributing back to the industry in terms of patents or creating new knowledge in the field.”
He also said that for someone new in packaging, he would recommend the CPIT first, followed by CPP.
“I think it shows someone who is committed to being involved in the packaging field for many years to come. For someone looking to gain non-technical packaging knowledge. CPP can get quite technical at times,” he said.
“So, for the non-technical person some portions might get a little tough, so start with the CPIT. If you are for instance a polymer films specialist or a canning specialist and would like to expand your knowledge on your advantages and disadvantages versus other options, it’s definitely worth doing for sure.”
