Two years ago when ATDC was appreciated for its skill development efforts, after winning the prestigious UK-India Skills Forum Award-2011, Dr. Darlie O Koshy, the man behind the ATDC success story, was thinking that they had not done enough. Again, when recently ATDC received the Assocham Award for best vocational institute, Dr. Koshy was busy thinking of what next and this continuous forward-thinking was clearly reflected at the first ever interactive skill event organized by ATDC – Hunar Ki Hunkar (Roar of Talent). The two days’ event, organized at the Apparel House, Gurgaon, included Rozgar Mela, various seminars and skill competitions, and saw active participation from all ATDC centres which got an opportunity to interact and take advantage of each other’s USPs, while more than 20 companies interviewed and selected candidates as per their need.
“Though ATDC has been operating at many locations around the country, not many know about their activities, even the individual centres do not know what others are doing. It is a must that the industry should understand the collective impact of ATDC, and this is what the event is about,” said a satisfied Dr. Koshy. The collective impact of ATDC centres was evident at the 18 statewise stalls, which besides showcasing the culture of the state, also effectively demonstrated the specialization of the centre, product and individual strengths. Not only was the faculty busy interacting with each other, but even the trainees were seen making effort to understand the working, specialization and products of each other’s centres.
Yet, while internally there was much activity, but on the other side the very slow industry visitation to the event was noticeably a disappointment. If the good visitation could have happened, not only would these centres have more exposure, but even the industry could have enhanced its recruitment of trained operator/manpower from around the country. Present at the event, Lalit Gulati, CMD, Modelama Exports said that ATDC and apparels industry are depending on each other for the future, and survival of both is also dependent on mutual cooperation.
Rozgar Mela, which was one of the main attractions of the event, witnessed participation of top export houses like Shahi, Pearl, Orient Crafto, Richa Global, Radnik and Arvind. Hundreds of candidates were interviewed by various companies but selection ratio was comparatively less as most of the HR and technical professionals of these companies felt that there was a mismatch of what the students were looking for and what the companies wanted. Orient Craft came with a huge team to hire 40 people in Quality, IE and Production Department, but its experience was just satisfactory as it could select only 12 of them on day one. “The way Hunar Ki Hunkar has been organized is perfect, the enthusiasm of candidates is also ‘infectious’ but most of these candidates want to join Merchandising, may be due to the glamour of the same but they should know that Production is the core of the industry, not Merchandising. I feel they should get more grooming on technical and practical perspective,” said Paramjit S. Lamba, AVP & Head – HR, Orient Craft, Gurgaon.
[bleft]Organized by ATDC at the Apparel House, Gurgaon, the two days’ event, included Rozgar Mela, various seminars and skill competitions. More than 20 companies interviewed and selected candidates as per their need.[/bleft]
Dushyant, Asst. Manager HR, Shahi Exports, Faridabad also felt that these candidates should focus more on technical as well as on their soft skills. “We liked their confidence and enthusiasm, but technical and soft skills require enhancement,” he said.
Inaugurating the event, Virender Uppal, Chairman, AEPC, was quite impressed with the overall development of ATDC and appreciated its contribution to skill development for the apparel industry. “It is estimated that from the year 2013 to the year 2022, about nine million people are expected to be added to the overall apparel industry, out of which at least 7-8 million would be the addition to shop-floor workforce given the growth in both export and domestic industries and the rest in different tiers of manufacturing as well as merchandisers, designers, managers, etc. With high attrition rates of 12-18 per cent on the production floors, trained workforce is required to substitute and also for expanding capacities,” he said.
Hari Kapoor, Vice-Chairman, ATDC; Ashok Logani, Chairman DISHA Sub- Committee; Lalit Thukral, Maharana of India; and GS Madan of Madan Trading Company were also present at the inauguration. Skill competition based on most efficient assembly line, competition for surface ornament, tech talk focusing on various topics also added value to this event. ATDC with about 190 centres provides these vocational skills to desirous candidates and bridge the gap between the rising manpower demand for skilled workforce of the garment industry and the employment and livelihood needs of youth and women folks in the country,”
concluded Kapoor.
