Skilling Requirements in Textiles: Technical Training and Its Trainers-Sri Lanka in Perspective

The textile and clothing industry has become very competitive in the world over. There are many players in the industry. The most prominent player is China. Recent statistics reveal that China continue to be the world’s largest textile and clothing producer in 2016 (Textiles outlook, 2017). China’s major export markets are EU, USA and Japan. However, rising labour costs and production costs of China will shift production to lower cost suppliers. This will give South Asia and South-East Asia an opportunity to capitalize in their exports. The question is, can these regions in Asia take this challenge? To overcome the challenges, they must be ready with highly skilled manpower. The Tertiary and Vocational Educational Training system across Asian region must be geared to take this challenge of training the new recruits. Can these countries have adequate numbers of skilled, effective and experienced trainers to train the new recruits? Qualified trainers may be in short supply. Then, how quickly can these trainers be made available for training? Half-baked trainers would turn half-baked workers that will not give right condition to meet the future challenges. A recent study by the author has revealed that there are not enough qualified trainers to impart knowledge and skill for those in the textile and clothing industry in Sri Lanka. This can be the case across Asia. It is time that responsible professionals in the training industry should consider about trainers if they are to launch a massive skilling project to meet requirements of the textile/clothing industry. Skilling the trainers must be a priority. It will be interesting to note that there is a mismatch between trainees and training courses. Also, students are not attracted to training courses. So, there is a concern about who should be trained and are they available?