The efforts to increase the availability of skilled manpower is of crucial significance as the growing skill manpower shortage is posing constraints for utilizing the full growth potential of the leather cluster, specially the footwear segment, in Agra.
Agra is a traditional cluster of footwear industry from more than a century & this industry has come up in a big way in the last decade or so.
Today, Agra has a share of 65 percent in the domestic footwear market & share of 28 percent in the total exports of footwear from India. Footwear sector is employing around 2, 50,000 direct workers & almost 25 percent of Agra's population is directly or indirectly associated with footwear & its allied industries.
Recently, Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) has started an exclusive training programme in 'Closing Operation'for a batch of twenty female trainees at FDDI's Operator Training Center, Agra to bridge the skill shortage in the leather industry. The training programme is being organized under the 'Placement Linked Skill Development Programme' (PLSDP) under the HRD Mission Programme of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
This is one of the achievements of the activities undertaken by FDDI, as the Agra Leather and Footwear Industry is mainly a male-dominated industry. The trainees of this batch were from the neighbouring localities of Agra like Billochpura, Lakhanpur, Achnera etc.
According to Mr. Rajeev Lakhara, IRS, Managing Director, FDDI, “The course will not only empower the female trainees with the skills and confidence necessary to get a job in the footwear industry, but also help the industries to hire skilled labour.” “The female trainees are very much happy and motivated with the training programme and they are confident that after the completion of the training programme, there will be a substantial increase in their earnings. In the near future, the FDDI training center at Agra is planning to train more than 1000 female trainees in the Center,” added Mr. Lakhara.
With demand for skilled manpower rising every year in the footwear industry, FDDI's programme is helping rural women to acquire the skills require to move the Indian Leather Industry to the next stage of success.
FDDI is implementing PLSDP under the XIth Five Year Plan of the Government of India in association with DIPP through established training centers at Kanpur, Agra and at various on-site locations across the country.
At these centres unemployed youths belonging from the economically weaker section of the society are being selected, trained and provided assistance to get employment in the footwear industry at the shop floor level operations.
Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI)
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