The Hindu Business Line : `Tone up technical training facility in garment industry'

The study shows that less than 6 per cent of the workforce has had formal institutional training and particularly at the supervisory level, it is only around 2 per cent.

New Delhi , Oct. 7

THE ever-escalating demand for readymade garments in the domestic market, coupled with manifold expansion in apparel exports, calls for large-scale efforts in overhauling and expanding technical training infrastructure.

This is the broad conclusion of a study sponsored by the Apparel Export Promotion Council and carried out by the Textile Committee, Mumbai in the wake of the post-quota free regime governing global trade in textiles and clothing.

Gaps in training, syllabi: The study provided a need gap analysis in the areas of training and syllabi for the apparel industry personnel engaged in shop floor level and supervisory functions. It said the garment sector which is highly decentralised is estimated to have grown at 7.26 per cent up to 2004.

Based on this, the total number of manufacturing units (consisting of domestic, export and fabricating types) is estimated at 1,92,127 for the year 2003.

And corresponding to this, the total manpower at the supervisory and shop floor levels is placed at 4.58 million in 2003, which is projected to grow to 6.62 million in 2010.

Out of this, 1.92 million are in export manufacturing units and the balance 2.76 million in the domestic manufacturing units. The personnel at the supervisory level is placed at 0.79 million, whereas 3.79 million are at the shop floor level; this is projected to go up to 1.15 million and 6.62 million respectively by 2010.

Low training: The study shows that less than six per cent of the workforce has had formal institutional training and particularly at the supervisory level, it is only around 2 per cent.

The apparel training and design centres (ATDCs) have a share of around 1 per cent in providing the training to the workforce. In the case of shop floor level personnel, the percentage of trained manpower is around six per cent.

The survey revealed that most of the units have realised the importance of institutional training for their workforce. It said the key occupational categories for receiving formal training include pattern masters, production supervisors, quality checkers and tailors.

Poor training institutes: Most of the sample units surveyed also indicated the inadequacies that include the insufficient number of institutes, lack of experience in training, outdated syllabi and poor image of the institutes.

While the industry is observed to follow an informal method of recruitment, around one-third of the units have indicated the difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel. A major area of problem is recruiting qualified tailors as 69 per cent of the export units have corroborated this.

Over-dependence on imported machinery: On technology, it is revealed that the industry is by and large using mostly imported machines for garment manufacture but not necessarily new machines. Especially in the export units, the dependence on imported machinery is overwhelming.

Referring to the extant training infrastructure, the survey said there are an estimated 328 institutions of different types providing formal training programmes and education in textile and fashion design technology. These include educational institutes, fashion institutes and technical institutes and apparel training and design centres (ATDC). The educational institutes rarely interact with the industry for designing syllabi and only 13 per cent of the technical institutes are found to interact with the industry to frame their syllabus.

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