Abstract:

The dual education system assembles theoretical and professional knowledge, by bringing together the traditional teaching with hand-to-hand interaction with the professional sector. Such combination could prepare students with the required competences and skills once they need to face the upcoming professional challenges, something which theoretical teaching does not embrace. Besides, there is also a change for the students to take advantage of the university facilities, where a research and laboratory scale production perspective can be achieved. Generally, the objective of dual training courses can be enclosed in the following statement: “working to learn, learning by working”.

Since 2016, LEPAMAP-PRODIS research group from University of Girona (UdG) has collaborated with the company Comexi and Santa Eugenia’s high education centre from Girona (Spain) within the professional courses “graphic printing and converting” and “digital prepress”. During such seminar, one important subject that the student must deal with concerns the paper manufacturing process, and others related to such field. In this context, the research group collaborates providing the students some important insights on the manufacturing of paper products, both from a technical and research viewpoint. Besides, the research group further organizes an activity outside its installation, which consists in visiting the paper manufacturing company LC Paper (Besalú, Spain).

Briefly, the LEPAMAP+PRODIS research groups, which is formed by engineers and science degrees, has been traditionally evoked and concerned by the sustainability of processes and materials, principally polymeric materials, always highlighting the importance of natural fibers as a green resource. Thereby, the sustainability and circularity of paper products deserves special attention for the research group, and so do the recycling processes of paper products. In this context, the activities performed by the students inside the university could be classified in two categories, the first one being the explanation and observation of a routinely paper production process, from raw materials to final product, and then the evaluation of a standard recycling process stage, involving important steps such as deinking. Once observed at laboratory scale those steps, the students experienced a larger scale and industrial production process in the LC Paper company.

Overall, the authors describe a collaboration project in the mark of higher education and university, from which the main perceptions and results are highlighted in the paper. Furthermore, possible innovations or/and improvements for similar upcoming experiences are suggested.

Keywords:

Dual education, paper, recycling, professional.