SPECIALIZED TRAINING
ipcm® Academy: Ten Years of Specialised Vocational Training for Over 130 Companies Gabriele Lazzari ipcm
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Our in-depth presentation of the training courses organised by ipcm® Academy continues with an interview with its co-founder Paola Giraldo. We find out with her why the need for a specific training course for coating technicians arose and, looking back over ten years of activity in which more than 130 companies have been trained, we try to understand what developments await the new profession of Industrial Surface Finishing Process Technologist, recently included in the Framework of Professional Standards of the Lombardy region. Paolo Rami has already expressed his views
he immediately started working as a trainer,
on the current situation and the future of
teaching at various professional institutes. In
vocational education and training . For this
1980, he founded Cierrepi, a consultancy firm
issue, we have chosen to interview Paola
set up to make his thirty years of experience
Giraldo, the co-founder and soul of the
available to the entire coating industry.
Academy. It was thanks to her insight that a
Author of the book “Verniciatura e controllo
school was born, that has developed rapidly
qualità”, published by Hoepli in 2004, since
and quickly become a point of reference in
2011 he has played a key role in the design
the industrial metal coating sector.
and implementation of the vocational training
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courses of ipcm® Academy. Under his Ten years ago, you inspired the
leadership, this has become a reference point
creation of ipcm® Academy. Apart from
for all Italian companies needing to train
specialised degree courses or specific
industrial coating technicians and operators.
corrosion inspector trainings, there was
When he passed away in 2016, the coating
no training course focused on coating
industry lost one of its most important
and involving all the players of this
figures.
complex process: those who wanted to © ipcm
learn could only do so in the field. How
Over these ten years, many aspects
did your idea come about?
have changed: from the course venue to
Paola Giraldo, co-founder of ipcm® Academy.
Founding a “coating school” had always been
the teaching staff to the actual course
U
one of my personal and professional dreams.
structure. Can you describe the most
ntil recently, there was no form of
That dream finally came true in 2011, when
important steps that characterised this
certification available to industrial
the ipcm® magazine started to organise its
transformation?
coating process experts. However,
first training courses with the collaboration
ipcm® Academy has always provided top-level
the collaboration between ipcm Academy,
of Ivano Pastorelli. Acknowledged as one of
training, which, over the years, has been able
the training division of the ipcm magazine
the leading experts in the coating industry, he
to keep up with the innovations brought to
with more than ten years’ experience, and
has served as a manager and consultant for
the industry. Its first courses covered powder
the ASP Mazzini Institute (Cinisello Balsamo,
the technical and commercial departments
and liquid coating application techniques,
Milan, Italy) has led to the creation of a Surface
of several major companies in the sector
anaphoresis and cataphoresis anti-corrosion
Finishing Process Technologist certification,
since 1970; in addition to his consulting work,
processes, and systems and methods for
®
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testing finished products. Three years later,
which is now recognised at the national and European levels. ipcm Academy director ®
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IPCM no. 66, Vol. XI, 2020
N. 69 - MAY/JUNE 2021 - international PAINT&COATING magazine
in 2014, a module was added focussing on
