Complying with Hon’ble Prime Ministers’ Skill India Campaign, Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC), India’s largest vocational training provider for the apparel sector, organized a series of competitions and workshops in all ATDCs’ major centres Pan-India to commemorate World Youth Skill Day being celebrated on 15th July 2016..

ATDC’s vision is encapsulated in “imparting skills and improving lives”. Spread across the length and breadth of India with about 200 centre include 65 ATDC vocational institutes and over 135 ATDC-SMART centers and skill camps, it has successfully trained approx. two lakh fifty thousand students by far, since its inception, and under ISDS above 1,86,000 in the Pilot & Main phase.

The National Skill Mission which was launched by the PM on World Youth Skill Day last year aiming to increase unemployment opportunity by enhancing skills of the youth, completed a year on 15 July, 2016. Most centres of ATDC saw a huge number of students gathered to participate, taking the zeal even among the organizers to new zeniths.

The Chairman of ATDC said on the occasion “The United Nations declared July 15 as World Youth Skills Day” in 2014 and our Hon’ble Prime Minister announced the ‘National Skill Mission’ and the ‘National Skill Development Policy’ on July 15, 2015 commemorating the World Youth Skills Day. In the last one year, considerable progress has been achieved towards skilling Indian youth. The Textile Sector especially Apparel being downstream has maximum potential for employment generation especially for women and youth. It is important that the skilling programme under the MOT’s ISDS goes from strength to strength to provide skilled Human Resources for the growing apparel sector especially in the context of the new Rs. 6,000 Cr. package announced by the Govt. which will certainly trigger job creation through additional capacities. ATDC has done yeomen service by setting up about 190 centres across India in 23 States having trained about 1,86,000 candidates by now under ISDS and linking about 70% to wage employment with mostly apparel exporters. The 2,00,000 mark is not far away and I congratulate the entire team and wish the ATDC’s contestants the very best in the Skill Competitions being held on 16 th & 17 th July, 2016 as part of Skill India celebrations.”

To mark the anniversary of the Skill India Campaign, ATDC centers in Gurgaon, Indore, Faridabad, Chennai Guindy, Patna, Okhla, Kanpur and Ranchi hosted a number of events. A mystery box contest marked the commencement of the eventful day at all the centers. Alumni Meets were arranged wherein the ex-trainees counseled the students, enabling them to choose a career path in apparel sector wisely. Other competitions including ‘saree draping’, ‘jewellery making’, ‘fabric painting’, ‘paper bag making’, etc were also held to evaluate the progress of the trainees. A series of workshops involved various key speakers from different states.

Manoj Kumar, Alumnus ATDC, working in Modelama Exports Gurgaon as Industrial Engineer said, “ATDC keeps organizing different competitions from time to time to analyze each student’s progress. This not only improves their skills but also instills in them a sense of doing better than before. I owe whatever I have achieved today to them”.

 

Dr. Darlie Koshy, DG & CEO, ATDC, expressing his elation over one year completion of the Skill India Campaign, said, “World Youth Skill Day remind us the need for equipping our youth with employable skills so that they can contribute to the well-being of their family and of the country. With skill put to use they become productive and engage arresting their attention from other nonproductive activities. Apparel sector has the unique potential to employ youth and women of all (18-50) age group and all types of education safeguard as an industrial or domestic servicing media becomes the field of that women or man in just 30—45 days providing him/her lifelong potential to earn and enjoy the work”. DG & CEO also wishes the contestants in the India Skill Competition all success.

The day long celebrations came to an end with the senior officers of NHO vising the various centres and felicitating the winners of various competitions as well as the special invitees.

“Skill India Campaign”, as the name suggests, was launched with a vision to achieve the objective of skilling India with ‘speed, scale and standards’ and ATDC has been comprehensively contributing by skilling hundreds of students every year especially in the ‘sunrise’ apparel or fashion industry in the country.