Be it the Centre or any State Government, or the industry itself, skill development is nowadays an issue in the limelight. To address many of the shortcomings in the current approach to skill development, Apparel Made-ups and Home Furnishings Sector Skill Council (AMH-SSC) has been formed recently under the aegis of the National Skill Development Corporation (Public-Private Partnership body), which will prepare National Occupational Standards for 45 job roles and train 2,470 trainers apart from assessing and giving affiliation to 164 training institutes to train 1.98 million trainees in next decade. Apparel Online met and discussed various aspects in detail with Dr. Roopak Vasishtha, the newly appointed CEO who has spent 16 years with AEPC (1990-2006) as HR – Head.
Standardization and uniformity in various course curriculums, and training patterns as per the actual needs of the industry is the biggest object for AMH-SSC; for this various meetings and brainstorming sessions with the industry are taking place. “The industry is not happy with whatever is being taught during training. Only 30 to 40 per cent of what is being taught is exactly what our garment industry requires. With the help of factory owners and production teams, we have deleted and added many new things in the courses and conventional teaching/training modules. In the last 7 months, out of the total 45 job roles we have completed 6 which cover about 70 per cent part of the apparel industry,” says an enthusiastic Roopak; 10 more qualification packs would be ready soon.
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Few of the brainstorming sessions took place at Shahi Exports, Faridabad and Apparel House, Gurgaon, where even the production supervisors took part to bring out what exactly is needed in training. Affiliated training providers and institutes (colleges/universities) of AMH-SSC must follow these newly structured course curriculums and no other affiliation will be required for them. To promote this affiliation, the Government will not charge any service tax to organizations affiliated to the AMH-SSC. Roopak is sure that this uniformity will increase the quality of training and ultimately the employability of trainee, which will be a help for the entire industry.
Along with this affiliation, hundred per cent assessment of the trainees/students will be done by assessment agencies of AMH-SSC which will be another push for the quality of training. “As of now, whoever is giving training is also assessing and issuing certificates to the trainees but under AMH-SSC training affiliation, we will conduct the exams and assess the trainees, so naturally each institute will pay more attention towards complete training process. Also, the certification, bearing Government of India emblem will be issued to these trainees, rather than just an institute. In fact it will be a big change to the existing system,” reasons Roopak. Implementation of the project is underway, and out of the total 164 training agencies targeted, 13 is the goal for the current year, out of which 6 are expected to be finalized very soon.
While there are numerous training agencies/options for the apparel segment in the home furnishing section, training is almost a neglected area; but AMH-SSC will focus on it also and a separate subcommittee has been created for the same headed by Amit Ruparelia of Trend Setters, Mumbai. Out of the total 45 job roles, 5 are for home furnishing and out of 14 members of the governing council, 2 members are specifically from the home furnishing industry. Separate meetings will be held for the same with focus on Jaipur, Panipat and Karur.
Generally, new training initiatives do not have a very positive image in industry and lack of transparency is a common problem that leads to apprehension, but AMH-SSC claims to be committed to put each thing in the public domain through its website which will have complete details of need and availability of trainees at national level. “We will maintain full transparency and complete whatever targets we have set well in advance; this will not only create credibility, but also be a big booster for the apparel and home textile industry,” concludes Roopak.
