The Hindu Business Line : Textile Ministry braces for plugging skill supply-demand gap

Building an institutional mechanism that looks at all skill, capability, quality and standards issues in the industry in a holistic and dynamic way is needed.

G. Srinivasan

New Delhi, Sept. 25The Textile Ministry reckons that in order to effectively meet the growing domestic market demand and ride on the global opportunity of the textile industry, the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) has projected a total investment of Rs 1,50,600 crore in the industry by 2012 and creation of an additional 6.5 million jobs.

Sources in the Government told Business Line here that currently 35 million people are directly employed in the textile sector across the value chain from spinning, weaving, processing, knitting and apparel-making.

But a cursory survey of the extant training institutes at every level reveals that only 80,000 people get trained per year in the industry, even as only about 50,000 enter the industry presumably because it is not seen as being lucrative.

Since the textile industry is targeting an export turnover of $50 billion by 2012 totalling it to more than $100 billion including domestic consumption, it is imperative that the country leverages its inherent advantages and builds capabilities to position itself as a complete solution provider rather than only a manufacturer.

Bridging the gap

The sources said that scaling up capacity build-up to meet skill supply-demand gap that would emerge as a result of the proposed investment in the sector, required building right leadership and skill capabilities and institutionalising quality standards through proper training and certification.

Sources said the scale and magnitude of skill and capability build up demanded by the industry dictates “a radical and institutional approach to planning and managing human resource development to ensure coherence, integration and quality.”

A Working Group set by the Ministry recognises the fact that a phased approach would be needed to bridge the demand-supply gap.

Here, the industry would continue to play a key role in building skills through on-job training while concurrently institutional mechanisms would be put in place.

Building an institutional mechanism that looks at all skill, capability, quality and standards issues in the industry in a holistic and dynamic way is needed, the sources said.

Hence a focus on enhancing facilities at IITs and IIMs; building Design and Apparel Manufacturing capabilities through augmentation of National Institutes of Fashion Technologies (NIFTs); strengthening of grassroot level related vocational training; building training standards accreditation; and building training capability through train the trainer programmes, is recommended.

The sources said that the proposed institutional mechanism titled Textile and Apparel Training Centres (TATCs) incorporating the various components that would beef up the manpower requirements of the industry could be apparel or weaving or processing-centric depending on location and cluster needs.

The total funds required for the setting up of the proposed institutional framework and scale of skill capacity build-up through TATCs is envisaged at Rs 1,500 crore over the next five years. This includes capital expenditure towards setting up of six additional NIFTs, upgradation of facilities in textile departments in IITS other textile institutes and setting up of five or six National Resource Centres and 400 TATCs, the sources noted.

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