New quality mgt course in footwear to tap engineering talent pool in state

Chennai:

In a bid to tap the talent pool of engineering students in Tamil Nadu, Footwear Design and Development Institute (FFDI) in the city is introducing a new course ‘Productivity and Quality Management’ from the forthcoming academic session.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, chairman of FDDI M Rafeeque Ahmed said that the course will be the first of its kind and the Rs 100 crore institute aims to provide platform for the emerging professionals especially engineering graduates with a high-level of professionalism.

The two-year post-graduate course, which will have an intake of 60 students, has been focused to concept building in the area of productivity, quality and maintenance management with application in footwear, retail products and allied industries.

He said the programme will enable students to start their career in the most needed areas of industry as a certified trained productivity and quality professional eligible for Six Sigma implementation.

Although the institute, located at Irungattukottai near SIPCOT Footwear Park, is yet to be formally inaugurated, there has been a huge demand for other courses launched last year which includes post-graduation in fashion merchandising and retail management besides footwear technology. It also has undergraduate courses.

The Chennai institute is the one of its kind in entire south India. The Commerce Ministry has set up other institutes in Noida, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Rohtak, Fursatganj and Chhindwara. Curently, Chennai institute has a faculty exchange programme with Arsutoria, an Italian design institute in Milan.

The export from leather industry is expected to reach an all time high value of $4.7 billion during 2011-12 and the industry has been set a target of $14 billion to be achieved by the end of 12^th plan.