NIFT's Surat sub-centre introduces three courses

With the Surat textile industry trying to move up the value chain "" from producing textile fabrics to apparel manufacturing "" the Surat sub centre of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) has introduced several courses to cater to the demands of the local textile industry.

"We are launching a course on apparel technology for entrepreneurs. It will be an eight session interactive programme aimed at providing details on the apparel industry," Surat centre coordinator Kunal Trivedi said.

"The course aims to give exposure to entrepreneurs to the various procedures in the apparel industry and help them (and the industry) go a step ahead in the value chain," Trivedi added.

The course would cover several aspects like overview of the apparel industry, apparel sewing machines, plant layout, apparel production systems, fashion marketing and fashion forecasting. The fees for the course has been fixed at Rs 5,500. Thirty seats are available per batch.

A special course on Indian ethnic women's wear has also been introduced. According to Trivedi, Surat is the epicenter for the manufacture of dress material and the course will be ideal for those involved in this segment of the industry.

The course aims to provide a complete overview of all the elements of dress making "" from the conceptualisation of an outfit to delivering it as a final product. It covers several aspects like pattern making, garment construction, fabric sourcing, traditional Indian textiles, surface ornamentation techniques, yarn craft techniques, traditional embroidery and the famed zardosi art of Surat. For the 130 session course, the fee has been pegged at Rs 15,000 and the number of seats per batch is 35.

Similarly, a computer aided fashion design course has also been launched. "The garment and textile industry has adopted information technology in a major way and this course will impart education in software related to fashion," says Trivedi.

The course covers basic sketching and rendering, fashion art, elements of fashion and design, fashion illustration, fashion model drawing, introduction to computers, Abode PhotoShop, CorelDRAW and fashion studio.

The NIFT Surat sub centre was set up in 1999 as an extension of NIFT Gandhinagar. Since then it has been providing active support to the textile and apparel industry in terms of providing a high quality manpower to the industry.

"Ever since our inception we have been running programmes on fashion designing, textile designing, clothing technology and specialised modules on women's wear", Trivedi said.