The textile industry is now preparing itself to cope up with new challenges. On 20 July 2020, a webinar on ‘Build your career through setting transformation blueprint’ has been organized by Textile Today where industry experts explained how the future industry and career can be transformed through proper planning and learning.
Md. Eousup Novee, GM-HR & Strategy @ PEOPLE Project (People, Process & Profit) Textile Today was the Keynote speaker where Dr. Mohammad Abbas Uddin (Shiyak), Assistant Professor, Department of Dyes & Chemical at the Bangladesh University of Textile and Shafiur Rahman, Regional Operations Manager, G-Star P.L.C Bangladesh were the Panel Speakers. The webinar was moderated by Tareq Amin, Founder and CEO of Textile Today.
Md. Eousup Novee explained about building a career through setting transformation blueprint. He mentioned that it is high time to upgrade the skillsets of career seekers to fit with the new challenges of new normal.
He added it is not only that many job seekers are not getting jobs, but the industry is also struggling to get the right person. No systemic approach has been taken so far to bridge the gap, neither in the industry nor in the education system. A matchmaking platform was needed to come out of this situation. The STB Black Belt Project, initiated by Textile Today, would help the career seekers to be prepared for the industry.
Under the STB Black belt program, there are 11 projects/career areas i.e. Printing (Digital Printing), Garment Washing & Dyeing, Chemical Management & Environment Sustainability, Water & Energy Efficiency, Fully Fashioned Garments, 3D Sampling and Industry 4.0, Application of Lean and Industrial Engineering, Apparel Marketing & Merchandising, Protective Clothing, Denim Development and Apparel Supply Chain Management.
There are more than 18 Factory Skills Development (FSD) and 32 Soft Skill Development (SSD) courses are going on to associate with STB Project. Any career seeker and executives can participate in the STB Project. FSD courses are like Product Development, Production Planning and Control, Marketing and Merchandizing, Lean & IE, Denim Development and so on. The SSD courses will help to learn about Business Communication, strategic management and decision making, negotiation skills and so on.
“These STB projects will help to build a good career for the participants, create a network with industry, industry experts,” he mentioned. Further, he added that in the past there was a challenge and it will remain in the future, so we need to prepare ourselves with appropriate skill and knowledge.
“If anybody goes through this project by the designed systematic approaches he or she can be an extraordinary industry expert in future that will also help our industry,” he emphasized.
Commenting about the jobless situation Dr. Abbas Uddin (Shiyak) said that with the invention of Printer and Photocopier Machine lot of people became jobless. Now the situation is also like that, so we have to overcome the situation like before.
Praising the TTH initiative he said, “It is doing a great job to make future industry experts. He said that with the training of TTH most of the participants are doing higher studies or working as an industry expert.”
Stating on the importance of the Black Belt Project by Textile Today Training (TTT) he said, “It’s mainly working to create Industry experts that will help us in the future. If our industry will shift after 10-15 years even there will be an opportunity for those people.” He wished that every student and the recently graduated person would focus on it.
Tareq Amin mentioned that through their TTH competition they want to create the right person for the industry by improving students’ skills.
Shafiur Rahman said that apparel is the basic need after food, its demand will be always the same. So, Bangladesh’s apparel industry has a huge opportunity to do well.
He mentioned that as the academic curriculum has been stopped for the last 4 months, it may create a bad effect on our economy. “So it’s high time to reopen all the universities.”
When some participants asked about lower initial salary Shafiur Rahman mentioned a difference between demand and supply of employees. He added that some industries are recruiting freshers (graduates) with high initial salary. There is an opportunity for everyone but that does not mean starting salary will not be the same. If someone shows his confidence to the authority with responsibility, then the industry will be ready to pay more.
Regarding this topic, Tareq Amin said that Textile Today’s STB project will increase the capacity, confidence and communication skill of the students that will help them to get a high initial salary.
The webinar explains why students should be more efficient, more confident and more skilled to face new challenges, acquire a new skill, to create new career scopes. The webinar also motives the young generation to be ready for every critical situation.
