Just News |
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel on Monday will deliver a keynote address at the launch of The Foschini Group’s (TFG) new Prestige Clothing manufacturing facility. In a first for the industry, the facility is designed to accommodate hearing-impaired learners, from the St. Vincent School for the Deaf, and prepare these learners for various job opportunities, they may otherwise not have been eligible for.
This initiative started in 2019 as a skills transfer project for learners with long term or recurring physical (including sensory) or other impairments that substantially limit their prospects for employment.
The department said this initiative is a by-product of the dtic’s Retail-Clothing, Textile, Footwear Leather (R-CTFL) Master Plan. The Master Plan stakeholders, comprising of the National Clothing Retail Federation (NCRF), Pepkor, CottonON, Superbalist, organised labour, manufacturing associations and the textile industry have set a target to grow the total R-CTFL retail sales from R165 billion in 2016 to R250 billion by 2030, with local share increased to 65% of sales. “Achievement of this target will support R69 billion in local procurement, and create 333 000 jobs, including 165 000 R-CTFL formal sector manufacturing jobs.”
