The Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (SDM) in collaboration with the leading manufacturer, marketer and retailer of suiting fabrics- Raymond Limited, announced to have successfully imparted tailoring course to 109 students from the Skilled Tailoring Institute by Raymond (STIR) in Lucknow. Most of the students have secured jobs in the textile sector.

Raymond plans to launch 20 more centres across the country in the next five years in a phased manner and train over 10,000 students going forward. STIR – a social initiative from the company offers tailoring courses for marginalized and unemployed youth as well as women of the state, in order to provide them with employment / self-employment opportunities.

Surendra Singh, mission director of SDM said, “We have always believed in offering employability linked skill development training programme in tailoring through our social initiative in the country – STIR. We look forward to facilitate free training to more students through this inititative in Uttar Pradesh. The state government is supporting in this intitiative.”

Raymond Limited had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) in 2013 under the Vocational Education and Skill Development Department of Uttar Pradesh government in order to organize Skill Training Programme in tailoring for marginalized and unemployed youth of the state. This would provide them employment / self-employment. The Lucknow centre started operations in March 2014 and has successfully trained 189 students of which over 150 students were women.