Coimbatore: A Centre of Excellence for Apparel, Made-Ups & Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council (AMHSSC) was inaugurated at nearby Tirupur today.

The AMHSSC was formulated by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship MSDE) and National Skill Development Council (NSDC) to develop Skills repository for Apparel value chain, National Occupational Standards in the industry, establish well-structured Sector specific Labour Market Information System and improvise the training delivery value chain, including third party assessments and certifications.

The mandate given to the Council includes creation of National Occupational Standards, Affiliating Training Providers in Apparel Trainings and assessing and certifying the trainees of such Institutes/Training Providers.

Inaugurating the Centre, MSDE Secretary K. P. Krishnan said that the fact that skills need to be made aspirational is something that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized in every forum; and platforms like AMHSSC’s CoE, will make a mark in the skilling in apparel sector.

The facilities like these would enrich the candidates with experience and exposure to the best practices and skills in their own field, which will help them, become a better skilled individual, who follows the right processes eventually becoming a good leader, Krishnan said.

The Council has been given an ambitious target of certifying more than two million persons till 2022 in the Skilling Courses for the Apparel sector, its Chairman, A Shaktivel said.

The Council is spearheading the Skilling work in the sector by participating in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and various other schemes of different states including the non-PMKVY schemes.

The Council has set up two Centers of Excellence at New Delhi and Tirupur at cost of Rs. two crores each and would basically be involved in Research work on the Apparel Manufacturing Technology/ Processes, thereon.

It would be conducting short term Management Development Programmes (MDPs) and Supervisory Development Programmes (SDPs) for the managerial and supervisory resources in Apparel Manufacturing Units for the purpose of Productivity Enhancement.

In addition to this, the Trainings of Trainer (TOT) and Trainings of Assessor (TOA) programmes shall also be conducted at these centres. The duration of the courses would be 2 to 3 days.

The perceived benefits to the industry would be reduced cost, increased efficiency, reduced risk, talent management, outsourcing/offshoring, career advancement etc.

The CoEs would function on ‘Paid model’ and the industry would pay for the courses being run there. Moreover, no Training Partner or any outside party has been roped in by AMH SSC for the operation of these Centres and AMH SSC would, on its own, run them, Shaktivel said.