Lessons in Employing the Digital Generation in the Textile Sector

Managing the Digital Generation in the Textile Sector The umbrella NGO of the ready-made garment and apparel sector, which closed 2021 with exports of USD 20.2 billion, marking a 32.9% increase compared to the previous year, is preparing to elect a new chairman in April. Özkan Karaca, who announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Istanbul Ready-Made Garment and Apparel Exporters Association, said they would provide business owners with personal development lessons on how to manage today's digital generation workforce. Karaca, a member of the Istanbul Ready-Made Garment and Apparel Exporters Association Board of Management, said that if elected, they would not only increase SME participation in production and exports but also work hard to help ready-made garment and apparel retail companies expand internationally. Karaca stated: "We will be the voice of small manufacturers and exporter SMEs. SMEs account for 98.3% of traders in our country, 67% of total employment, and 47% of our total exports. We will enter into agreements with corporate development consulting firms and send them to support our exporters. We will help them increase efficiency from warehousing to loading and reduce waste ratios. We will collaborate with firms specialized in personal development consulting. We will have business owners receive personal development lessons on how to manage today's digital generation workforce. In my view, our SMEs are not benefiting sufficiently from government support programs. We will enter into agreements with firms specializing in government incentives as consultants. Once the support is confirmed, the SME and consulting firm will decide how to proceed with the process themselves."

International Expansion in Ready-Made Garments

Pointing out that the per-kilogram value in ready-made garment exports was USD 19 before 2017 but has now dropped to USD 16, Karaca said: "We have not secured the market share we targeted from Turkey's total ready-made garment exports. While our sector held 3.6% of the global market share before 2015, this share dropped to 3.2% in 2020. In my view, our sector has the potential to capture 5% of the global ready-made garment market if the right steps are taken. The path to increasing our unit value in exports lies in upgrading organized retail exports. We will provide support for ready-made garment brands to open stores abroad. On the other hand, we will prepare reports on antidumping duties applied to access of many raw materials and semi-finished products not produced in our country, prove that these duties are not beneficial for our country but rather cause losses, and work to convince our administrators." He added: "We will make efforts to have the antidumping duties removed."

Training Formula Emerging for Skilled Labour Shortage

Karaca also shared the formula they have developed for the skilled labour shortage in the sector: "One of the biggest problems for our manufacturers is finding new personnel. To meet our sector's personnel needs, we will first train master instructors, then in permanent training units these master instructors will provide courses to our trainees, within 45-60 days we will bring them to a level where they can sew products such as shirts and t-shirts, and we will place them with our companies. For this, we will work in coordination with district municipalities. We will increase our support to vocational high schools under our Education Foundation. Under the leadership of the Ministry of National Education, we will open new vocational high schools in districts where ready-made garments are concentrated. We will work on converting our Fashion Academy into a university. The competition for young stylists, which started in 1992 and was later organized as the Cocoon Young Fashion Designers Competition, will be expanded to include knitted wear, socks, and underwear categories." Emphasizing the need to provide the necessary infrastructure for sustainable exports, Karaca said: "Our goal is to achieve production with lower energy and water consumption. We will work to encourage the sector to focus on recyclable products. We will rehabilitate our contract workshops, which are among our most important partners, and provide support and training so they conduct production that fulfills their social responsibilities."