Stakeholders in garment industry to boost sector through skills dev’t

Stakeholders in the garment industry have intensified efforts in making the sector more attractive to the global market by equipping its members with the needed knowledge and skills.

This aim is to be achieved through the Ghana Apparel Training and Service Centre which has been established at the Accra Technical Training College.

The Centre, which was set up by GIZ Ghana in partnership with Ethical Apparel Africa and others, seeks to train 500 individuals in various subjects by mid-2022 and to provide further technical services to small and medium-sized clothing manufacturers, hence creating over 1000 new jobs Ghanaians.

The CEO of Ethical Apparel Africa, Keren Pybus, speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the launch of the training centre said: “by raising the skill level within the country, we can raise the profile of Ghana as a potential export country”.

She noted, “There’s already so many other things that make Ghana attractive; the AGOA agreement with the USA [for instance] where you’re located in terms of being able to ship easily to the USA. The buyers don’t understand what is available in the country and people are always nervous about moving to a new country. So we’ll be able to showcase that because we’ll be able to say Ghana is compliant, its people have these technical skills so come and see and place your orders.”

The training centre was officially launched in Accra on Thursday, November 26, 2020 by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, together with its partners, Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA), Gerber, Groz Beckert, Freudenberg and Accra Technical Training College (ATTC).

With funding from the German Federal government, this initiative falls under the GIZ implemented develoPPP.de programme.

The key objective of the centre is to strengthen export-oriented small and medium-sized apparel manufactures to create socially responsible jobs.

The GATSC would offer training and services in different areas of expertise like manual and digital pattern making, sewing machine mechanics, industrial engineering, and social compliance.

On their part, the Ghana National Tailors and Dressmakers’ Association (GNTDA), also pledged to utilise the apparel training and service centre to better the skills of members to develop the clothing industry.

A former National Coordinator of the Association, Seiwaa Dapaah, stated, “Reechoing our motto ‘GNTDA, Clothing Africa and Beyond’ suggests that we are ready to go beyond our local boundaries. To successfully achieve this, we definitely need the assistance of the GATSC.”

“We are grateful that this service centre established will address the resource gap existing among our members across the country in terms of the provision of modern sewing gadgets. We have a lot to learn. The tailor or dressmaker sitting somewhere is going to go digital and that is a good sign. Of course, the whole world is going digital, so we have to follow suite,” she remarked.