Building strong partnerships is essential to ICPF’s mission. ICPF continues to develop relationships with workforce organizations and education partners to grow awareness of the corrugated packaging industry as a stable, sustainable, and future-ready career path. In recent years, ICPF has expanded outreach to include non-packaging majors (i.e. supply chain, business, marketing, etc.) and continuously works to build talent pipelines within trade/vocational schools and high schools to educate current students on the many benefits of choosing a #CareerInCorrugated. Learn more about our current partnerships below.
ICPF Partners with Project Learning Tree
In 2024, ICPF announced a two-year partnership with Project Learning Tree (PLT), an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) to increase youth awareness of corrugated packaging industry careers. The partnership will increase awareness, access, and education about the rewarding green careers in the corrugated packaging industry through the development of educational resources for middle school and high school youth. In June 2025, ICPF and PLT launched Thinking Outside the Box, an engaging and comprehensive activity collection designed to help K-12 students and educators explore the world of corrugated packaging—its role in sustainability, the circular economy, and career opportunities.
In addition to hands-on, customizable activities for K-12 classrooms, Thinking Outside the Box also includes various “Career Corners” designed to introduce students to a diverse range of careers in the corrugated packaging industry. With input from industry professionals, ICPF and PLT have also developed nine distinct Corrugated Career Fact Sheets that outline necessary qualifications, future hiring demand, salary ranges, and more information about careers in corrugated. These resources complement ICPF’s activity collection, are integrated into PLT’s national career exploration platform, and can be accessed for free on our website here.
PLT and ICPF are also partnering to offer professional development experiences for educators and career counselors who work directly with students in all stages of the career planning process. To date, 50 educators have received training on how to implement Thinking Outside the Box and other corrugated packaging career resources into their classroom lessons and a variety of learning environments. Industry partners are encouraged to get involved in this initiative by hosting a workshop at your facility and offering a tour for participants. Get in touch with us if you’re interested in hosting a professional development workshop at your box plant to connect with educators in your community.
ICPF Partners with SkillsUSA
In 2025, ICPF made significant progress in building its partnership with SkillsUSA, a nationwide career and technical student organization that serves more than 442,000 middle school, high school and college students in trade, technical, and career preparation programs across the United States. In addition to attending both regional and national events to connect with students and other industry associations, ICPF is also a SkillsUSA Silver Sponsor.
As a Silver Sponsor, ICPF is able to leverage SkillsUSA’s national network of technical education chapters to engage students early as they prepare for careers in manufacturing. In 2026, ICPF’s efforts will be focused on direct email campaigns to career technical education professionals and a talent pipeline development initiative that facilitates engagement opportunities between corrugated packaging manufacturers and qualified students. ICPF Corporate Partners are eligible to participate at a discounted rate. Investing in this initiative will lead to three classroom visits at a SkillsUSA chapter in your community, an impactful first step to build sustainable pipelines of skilled talent.
Outreach to Non-Packaging Students & Programs
ICPF awards full scholarships to The Packaging School’s 12-week online Certificate of Mastery in Packaging Management (CMPM) program. ICPF covers the full enrollment cost while you gain real-world skills that can be applied to the corrugated packaging industry and one-on-one coaching from a PhD—a $7,000 value per student. This opportunity is open to current students (age 18-25) who are studying business, supply chain, graphic communications, design, engineering, environmental science, chemistry, or a STEAM-related field at a college, university, trade/technical school, or community college. Students can begin an application here.
Outreach to Trade/Technical Schools & Community Colleges
ICPF has developed a partnership with Ivy Tech Community College as part of our strategic initiative to fill plant floor positions by initiating trade school and community college outreach. ICPF has provided a grant to Ivy Tech awarding up to $50,000 in student scholarships for advanced manufacturing students who are uniquely qualified to serve as machine operators and maintenance technicians in Indiana. ICPF’s scholarship covers tuition costs and a travel stipend to support successful candidates as they complete a three credit hour internship/co-op experience at a box plant near them. Let us know if your company is interested in hiring interns.