JAFF expands regional awareness campaign

As endorsed by the government JAFF is currently spearheading a major campaign to promote the apparel industry among rural youth. This initiative came through in March this year with the endorsement of the government to promote the apparel industry to maintain their status as one of the key leading stakeholders of export earnings for Sri Lanka.

With the challenges of the world market prices and the quota system taking turns small holder to middle exporters were facing difficulties in a variety of ways due to these pressures.  One issue was employees were seeking alternative forms of work. As a result many factories began to lose their skilled workers thereby creating a dearth in employment within these factories.  

Even then currently, the impact of the GSP + has had no tangible effect on the industry per se and in fact, many factories are working in full capacity. However for these factories under employment remains a severe problem. The new initiatives that JAFF and the government has undertaken will promote the industry to fill in this gap of underemployment and focus on the changes that factories too have taken to address in the light of this issue. One major focus is also to clarify the prevailing misconceptions that have been created about the image of the factory worker. Thus this campaign is also essentially about image building of the apparel industry.

While focusing on the aspect of employment, this programme also facilitates the promotion of talent of the rural youth that are already employed within this sector primarily focusing on highlighting their creativity and uplifting their status as “employed skilled workers”.

A total of 242 factories within 22 districts including the north will be visited over the next few months.  A pilot study was carried out in Chilaw with a mini talent search and the “apparel star” contest among 5 factories. The shows attracted not only the factory workers but also rural youth and the public at large from the surrounding area which enabled them to mingle with the talented youth of this sector. Based on the experiences gained from this location presently, promotion is carried on a larger scale in Anuradhapura.  The positive responses from the public at large have been beyond the expectations of the facilitators.

The factories that participated in the Puttalam District are: Brandix Intimates, Carlton Garments, Broadsword Apparel, Tarakie Garments, Concord Apparels, Guston Lanka and DM Lanka (under lease by MAS) in Mihintale.