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Skilled Human Resource

Published: May 27, 2012

Author: TEXTILE VALUE CHAIN

Skilled Human Resource- The need of the Indian Textile Industry

Right people are an asset to the enterprise

Introduction:

India is growing economy today on world’s map. With abundant raw material availability & stable government, strong industrial growth is forecasted in near future. Textile is one the most ancient industries. Today, textile sector is one of the largest contributors to India’s exports with approximately 11 per cent of total exports. The industry realised export earnings worth US$ 41.4 billion in 2014-15, a growth of 5.4 per cent, as per The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil). The Indian Textile Industry contributes approximately 5 per cent to India’s gross domestic product (GDP), and 14 per cent to overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The Indian textiles industry, currently estimated at around US$ 108 billion, is expected to reach US$ 223 billion by 2021. The industry is the second largest employer after agriculture, providing employment to over 45 million people directly and 60 million people indirectly. As per the NSDC report, the overall employment in the textile and clothing sector is expected to increase from about 33 to 35 million in 2008 to about 60 to 62 million by 2022.This would translate to an incremental human resource requirement of about 25 million persons by 2022.Of this, the mainstream textile and clothing sector has the potential to employ about 17 million persons incrementally till 2022. As textile is highly labour intensive industry, the growth will be highly supported by skilled workforce. High skilled workforce trained with international technology will help to achieve higher productivities & good operational management. There will be tremendous demand of efficient manpower in coming future in India. But today’s scenario is completely contrast, we are facing huge scarcity of skilled workforce.

Reasons for scarcity in skilled workforce in Textile Sector:

Fewer institutes offering Textile courses

There is huge demand of technical manpower from the industry but unfortunately due to shortage of skilled manpower, we are facing huge demand supply gap in the industry. The prime reason of this shortage is number of institutes having technical courses in Textile are very few & can be counted on fingertips.

Inappropriate course content

The most of the institutes offering technical courses have not designed their course content as per existing industry requirement. In fact many of the institutes have not revised their portion as per new technology & current techniques. They are still teaching the old technologies to the students. Many of the students are not even aware of latest technology in the industry. So, when they enter into industry after completing their courses, they face huge challenges in understanding the industry.

Lack of industry knowledge

After completing the course, students have very less or no industry knowledge. Most of the students are thorough with the theoretical knowledge only from examination point of view, but they face challenge in industrial application. The main reason is due to improper in-plant training during the course. As in-plant training is the only industrial exposure to the students during course, it is very important to have this training for sufficient period of time. Most of the institutes are currently offering 1 month to maximum 3 months of in-plant training which is not sufficient to gain proper industry knowledge. The in-plant training should be extended to minimum 1 year of period.

Switching over the field

Many of the textile graduates switch over the field after completion of their course to some other sector. Some of the reasons for switch over are unhygienic & unhealthy working conditions at plant, low pay at entry stage etc.

Workforce with no textile background

Many of personnel working on shop floor are having no textile technical knowledge. They do not have formal textile education, so they find it very difficult to understand the technicalities. So, it is important to provide them with proper trainings.

Current Government Initiatives:

Recently, The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi announced a special package of Rs. 6000 crores towards employment generation and promotion of exports in Textile and Apparel sector. The move comes in the backdrop of the package of reforms announced by the Government for generation of one crore jobs in the textile and apparel industry over next 3 years. The majority of new jobs are likely to go to women since the garment industry employs nearly 70% women workforce. Thus, the package would help in social transformation through women empowerment.

In past, with a view to address the manpower requirement of the diverse textile and related segments, the Ministry of Textiles introduced pilot phase of Integrated Skilled Development Scheme (ISDS) in the last two years of the 11th Five Year Plan Year 2010-11. Subsequently, the scheme has been scaled up during the 12th plan with the targets of skilling 15 lakhs persons by the end of March 2017

Approach & Future Plan:

It is important to address the issue of current scarcity of workforce by resolving above problems. To do so, first we need to understand entire textile value chain thoroughly & study the current demand supply gap of workforce in each segment starting from spinning to weaving to processing. . We need to figure out what are the skill sets required for each sector. The course content should be designed accordingly. In fact, while designing the course content, focus should be more on practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge. Though Textile is one of the most ancient industries in India, it is not perceived as a profession in the same way as it is perceived 30 years back. Many youngsters are seemed to be turning back to the Textile Sector. So, it is important that first Textile Industry should gain its momentum back. For this, efforts should be put on changing mindset of youngsters towards Textile Industry. In fact, Technical Textiles is the major growing sector having estimated growth rate of 20% CAGR in India, so we should focus more on Technical Textiles now. It should be included as a mandatory subject as a part of curriculum. This will help in creating awareness amongst youngster. Apart from technical knowledge, there should be emphasis on soft skills as well as leadership skills development.

First step in carving the future action plan is we need to project the future requirement of workforce in India & analyze whether the number of the existing education institutes are sufficient to meet up total industry’s future manpower demand. If demand-supply is considerable, then we need to increase number of seats. In fact, we also need to analyse future growth segments in textile sector & accordingly redesign the course content.

About SUVIN

Today, Suvin is one the major consultancies in India working towards the growth of the Indian Textile Industry addressing industry’s issues timely. Suvin has understood the need of the hour for efficient manpower with technical knowhow. In today’s competitive world, skilled manpower plays very crucial role in the success of the company. So, with highest level of dedication & proficiency, Suvin can assist the industry to identify suitable workforce & conduct training programs for various levels. Suvin has associated with Werner International, USA for training workforce & increasing efficiency & plant productivity. Suvin can provide following services: