The NIFT-TEA Knitwear Institute here has obtained the approval of Union Ministry of Textiles to work as a ‘partner’ for implementing the Ministry’s Integrated Skill Development Scheme in Tirupur knitwear cluster.
Raja M. Shanmugam, the chief mentor of the NIFT-TEA Institute, told The Hindu that as part of the venture, 5,000 youth will be imparted skill training in the first phase on various aspects of apparel production.
“Lack of availability of adequate skilled workers has been a deterrent for the progress of the knitwear cluster beyond a certain limit, till now. Many orders from foreign buyers were not taken because of not getting requisite skilled labourers to ensure timely delivery of goods.
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“This situation will be changed drastically once the skill development programme envisaged now under the partnership mode with the Union Government, gets implemented,” he said.
Under the joint initiative, a new set of 5,000 youth are going to be readied for induction into the textile sector by training them on sewing techniques covering single needle sewing, over lock sewing and flat lock sewing, pattern making, checking quality of fabrics and garments and computer-aided designing.
“Training will be of six weeks in duration for every set of workers with resource persons to be outsourced as well as to be taken from among the research team of NIFT-TEA Institute,” explained Mr. Shanmugam.
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According to textile entrepreneurs, the presence of highly trained workforce will help them reduce the wastages and increase the profitability. “Amounts thus saved can be utilised for capacity expansion which, in turn, generates more employment,” they opined.