Over the years, there has been a paradigm shift in businesses; about who drives the company and how the work is done. Since the dawn of global trade, we have seen executives setting the rules and passing them down to managers who, in turn, pass them down to employees.

However, at present, the time has come wherein talented people need organizations more than organizations needing talented people. To provide more clarity, it means that it is the employees who are now driving the decisions and conversations around how work has to be done, when, and who gets it done.

Hence, we can clearly deduce that the world today is in dire need of individuals or professionals, who are skilled, are experts, and technologically-savvy with an additional ability to adapt and learn the new advancements at the earliest.

This in return demands the need for an advanced educational system meeting the modern requirements. Educational institutions will have to offer competency-based certifications, test specific skills, and develop individual, professional and managerial skills and make students employable.

Taking the same into consideration, in our attempt to find such an educational institution that enhances the skills and competency of students, landed us at Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC).

A Trusted Name

The Apparel sector has the maximum potential for employment generation, both in urban and rural areas, especially enhancing the capacity to revive the rural economy and connect rural youth with the mainstream. Recognizing the same, Atdc addresses the need of enabling individuals with employable skills.

It is a dedicated Public Vocational Training Provider under the aegis of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)and has the largest number of exclusive, directly-run training centres for the apparel sector and is arguably the single largest training provider for a single domain vocational trade in India. ATDC’s Vision is encapsulated in ‘Imparting Skills, Improving Lives & Innovating Future’ aptly, with an eye on Industry Revolution 4.0.

Over the years it has earned its name as the Largest Quality Vocational Training Network for the Apparel Sector with about 160 ATDC’s Pan-India which are comprised of 60 ATDC Vocational Institutes and more than 100 ATDC-SKill Centres across 23 states all over India.

Furthermore, ATDC was registered on Feb15, 1991 as a Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, in New Delhi with the mission to upgrade the ‘technical and technological skills’ of the human resources employed in the Textile- Apparel Value Chain, working with the garment export units.

ATDC’s Industry Connect

ATDC under the Aegis of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)

Dr. A Sakthivel –Chairman, AEPC & ATDC

ATDC was set up in 1996 by AEPC in response to the felt need for technically trained shop floor workforce for apparel sector. Dr A Sakthivel, “PADMA SHRI” is heading AEPC and ATDC as Chairman. With his unparelled service to Export Sector especially to apparel sector and knitting industry, Dr A Sakthivel  is sworn-in for the fourth time as Chairman of AEPC & ATDC. He has played a vital role in the growth of ATDC and established a bridge between academia and industry. AEPC has a strong 8300 member exporter base and ATDC has established industry connect under the aegis of AEPC. Dr A Sakthivel has been instrumental in motivating many enterprising and capable youngsters to make a career in exports. His dedicated involvement in visionary projects, initiatives and his immeasurable contribution for the growth of industry and development of society is well recognised.

Envisaging Premium Quality Education

ShriRakeshVaid –Vice Chairman, ATDC

Upholding the ATDCs continued growth and retaining its value is Sri RakeshVaid, Vice Chairman ATDC. As former Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Sri Vaid has been instrumental in strengthening the Institutional Framework of ATDC. His proactive guidance is aimed at bridging the Skill Gap through quality training delivery to youth, women and other disadvantaged sections of society at ATDCs across India and making them ready to join apparel industry.

Dr.DarlieKoshy –Director General & CEO, ATDC

As a visionary educationalist and a transformatory leader, Dr DarlieKoshy has been heading ATDC as Director General & CEO. He holds a PhD from IIT Delhi and is a rank holder in MBA from CUSAT. He has served as Director, NID and also Governing Council Member for two terms of office (2000-2009). Dr Koshy has been instrumental in development of a new skill ecosystem from short term courses to BVoc Degree Programmes in ATDC while playing a proactive role behind setting up over 200 plus ATDC Centres and training over 3,50,000 candidates over the last decade.

Why Choose ATDC?

Having a brief overview of ATDC enlightens how the institute focuses on improving and enhancing the lives of students. However, it is now important to understand what enables ATDC to offer supreme quality education. The below-mentioned values or objectives of ADTC enable it to stand out from the crowd:

• Provide skilled and well trained industry-ready human resources to the textile–apparel value chain to improve the technical edge in apparel manufacturing as per international benchmarks.
• Generate employment opportunities for the weaker sections of the society by providing them training in the field of apparel design manufacturing and allied areas.
• Upgrade the technical and technological skills of human resources to improve quality, productivity, efficiency levels of the downstream Apparel Industry in particular.
• Prepare the industry for the Industrial Revolution 4.0 by introducing Change Management courses through ATDC-IAM-CE Programmes.
• Equip the candidates with soft- life skills in addition to domain skills so that they can withstand rapidly changing performance parameters in various job situations.

Empowering Industry-Specific Education

Aiding the institute in its pursuit of offering comprehensive training in the apparel sector is its industry-specific and skill-centric curriculum. ATDC Vocational Institute offers a wide range of courses that are a vital component to train the youth in the field of apparel, fashion and lifestyle for careers in an integrated fashion eco-system.

The B. Voc program was initiated in 2015 in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD), an INI under 35/2012 Act of Parliament) and approved by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). B.Voc Fashion Design & Retail and B.Voc Apparel Manufacturing & Entrepreneurship are 2 tracks offered through 20 ATDC Skill Knowledge Providers across India. Both the streams are very well received with over 1200 enrolments till date. 188 students of two cohorts of BVoc 2015-18 and  BVoc 2016-19 have been conferred Degrees by RGNIYD in the BVoc Award function held on 21 November 2019 which was Presided over by Dr. (Prof) Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman AICTE.

ATDC also offers other courses such as Apparel Manufacturing Technology (AMT), Fashion and Design Technology (FDT) both one diploma programs as well as a bouquet of short –duration skill courses envisaged by Apparel-Madeups-Homefurnishing Sector Skill Council (AMHSSC)

Another significant course is the Continuing Education Programme, meant for the working professionals to upgrade their skills in the context of rapidly changing technology. Conducted in collaboration with the IAM industry projects and CE Programmes Division & NISTI and the Textile Institute UK, including the GAP P.A.C.E. Programme to a large of students, it gives them the choice of part-time and weekend short-time courses.

A Place to Belong

Complimenting this exhaustive set of courses areATDC’s facilities and other empowering activities. ATDC has a vast pool of over 400-plus qualified and experienced faculty members with a wide range of domain expertise, covering most of the skill-intensive areas of the textile-apparel value chain.

The ATDCs render yeomen service to the downstream Apparel export and domestic industries, having trained over 2,17,000 candidates in entry-level trade courses under ISDS of MOT,GoI since 2010, as a Component-I implementing agency till 2017 and also about one lakh candidates in longer-duration Vocational courses in recent years, thus improving the lives of trained candidates who received wage employment in apparel units post ATDC training and their dependent family members

Additionally, ATDC National Placement Cell through it’s state, regional and national level ‘RozgarMelas’ and Meets have been able to place about 70%-73% of candidates in wage employment and out of these, 10%- 15% of candidates have taken up self-employment

Offering a World of Opportunities

It is evident that ATDC pursues skills-excellence in an integrated manner by creating a ‘step ladder-training ecosystem’ with a clear focus on ‘skilling of aspirational Indian youth especially women for wage & self-employment’. It also aims at training individuals for the Apparel Sector which has the maximum potential for employment generation, especially to revive the rural economy.

Its continuous endeavour has made ATDC Apparel Sector’s preferred source for skilled shop floor and supervisory workforce in different tiers of professional profiles. Students who pass out from ATDC take various professional roles such as Sewing Machine Operator, Pattern Engineer, Machine Technicians/Mechanics, Surface Ornamentation Specialists, Apparel Production Supervisors, Quality Controllers, Industrial Engineers, Quality Assessment Executives, Merchandising Executive, etc.

The post Apparel Training and Design Centre: Nurturing Industry Professionals of the Highest Calibre appeared first on The Knowledge Review.