Friday, May 25, 2012

Careers in Footwear Design

Footwear is an emerging career in the design industry. As the people are getting more conscious about what they wear, the selection of footwear becomes a status symbol in society. Increase in demand and choice for footwear has led to a spurt in the number of companies, including some international players dealing with footwear production and export trade in India. Footwear is created from various raw materials, such as leather, canvas, plastic, jute, rubber, and cloth as well. The heavy branding and use of sophisticated machinery and skilled manpower has further contributed to the recognition of high-end brands. In short, footwear designing technology, as of today, offers lucrative career options.

Course Details
Graduate, post graduate, certificate, diploma, and some advance courses are offered in footwear design/technology. The minimum qualification for undergraduate diploma or certificate programs in footwear design is 10+2 in any stream. For admission in a post graduate course in footwear design, one must be a graduate in any stream of education. Admission to most of these courses is done through entrance exams. However, footwear technology courses are offered as B.Tech/M.Tech programs, which are open only to science background students.

Career Prospects
Students, who are creative with good aesthetic sense, have a good career options open in the field of design, marketing, and manufacturing of footwear designing. They can join specialist footwear companies, designer labels, sportswear companies, at both junior and executive levels. After gaining adequate experience, one can set up his/her own exclusive footwear label or enter in the market as a footwear line builder, footwear technician, trade analyst, cost analyst, senior production co-coordinator or production manager, etc.

Institutes Offering
Some premier institutions that offer courses in footwear designing are: Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai; National Institutes of Fashion Technology (NIFTs) at New Delhi, Gandhinagar, and Chennai; Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) at Noida and Chennai; Central Footwear Training Centre (CFTC), Chennai; Central Footwear Training Institute, Agra; Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur; Dr. BR Ambedkar Regional Engineering College, Jalandhar; Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology, Muzaffarpur; Government Leather Institute, Agra; AVI School of Fashion & Shoe Technology, Chandigarh; College of Leather Technology, Calcutta; Institute of Government Leather Working School, Mumbai; National Small Industries Corporation Ltd., Chennai.

Remuneration
The initial, starting salary in this field will be somewhere around Rs. 10,000 - 12,000 per month. International players offer higher pay packages to fresher’s which can range between Rs. 15,000 - 20,000 per month. Independent footwear designers can earn revenue depending upon the nature of their assignments.

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