Sacmi unveils major Italian investment for group-wide training facilities

The Sacmi industry equipment and systems business has inaugurated its training facilities at Imola, Italy, with a €2 million investment in developing innovation across the company, reports Neill Barston.

Its broad portfolio of solutions includes its chocolate packaging division, with the site already up and running, enabling its dedicated team to deliver 48,000 hours of training during its initial phase of development last year for 3,000 employees across its interests.

The 400m2 facility includes functional, flexible spaces designed to deliver collaborative training, drive growth and, above all, spark an exchange of ideas and expertise. Its blue-orange-green color scheme has a refreshing ‘open air’ feel, with saturated colours and natural wood providing an environment conducive to learning.

“We conceived the Academy not just as a physical space where we can train our people, but as an environment that disseminates, above all, culture and values”, explains Paolo Mongardi, president of SACMI.

Which values? Honesty, ethics, courage in the face of future challenges yet also the ability to draw on experience and pass the resulting knowledge on to the next generation.
“Here at SACMI, we have at least five generations working together. Innovation isn’t just about embracing the future. It is, primarily, the ability to connect different experiences so that the company left to those who come after us is an even better one”, underlines Paolo Mongardi.

As the business added, training is the lifeblood that feeds the organisation’s growth: with the Academy, SACMI extends such training to customers, the other companies within its network in Italy and worldwide, to universities and to schools.

Its first fully operational year saw an increase in the hours dedicated to routine training, with specific programs being developed to ‘train the trainers’. There are already about a hundred certified Sacmi trainers: experienced personnel with shared tools, procedures and goals at the service of the entire network; this means the trainers themselves are motivated and enthusiastic, ensuring courses are methodically organised right from the onboarding stage when new personnel join the company.

The business has developed a number of partnerships within its local region, including Bologna Business School and Turin Polytechnic as just two of the institutions that Sacmi has teamed up with to establish cutting-edge courses: in 2023 the focus will be on leadership, project management and the IoT Academy, an offshoot dedicated to expanding and propagating the expertise needed for the digital transition.

Marco Panieri, Mayor of Imola, who attended the inauguration, said: “Today, training is more crucial than ever. The facility inaugurated today is a knowledge generator. It highlights both the strength of this enterprise’s local roots and its global outlook. SACMI’s technological vocation and willingness to share its expertise stem from the values of the cooperative movement that has won success for the city of Imola and its community all over the world”.

 

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