CPUT News 2017 : Screen Printing Training Aims To Inject Life Into Fading Industry
An impoverished community, which used to have a thriving clothing, industry may see a resurgence in the trade thanks to a CPUT intervention.
The Technology Station: Clothing and Textile along with corporate assistance from the National Screen and Digital Supplies company recently trained a group of unemployed young people from Atlantis the art of screen printing.
The 26 individuals were trained over a two day period on how to use every day, cheap materials like a table, wooden board, the sun and a simple squeegee to transform basic items into desirable products like conference bags, branded T-shirts and pillows.
Trainer Patrick Nolan says there is a gap in the screen printing industry because most labourers aren’t properly trained to do the job.
“You have a scenario where someone works his way up into a screen printing job and is trained by co-workers but they pick up bad habits and there is no proper training,” he says.
CPUT’s Shamil Isaacs says the university answered a government call to support small and medium enterprises by stimulating innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit in impoverished communities.
“They can go out and sell these services to business. CPUT will then take it further by providing additional services like putting their prints on actual products thereby adding value and eventually they could earn a living from this,” he says.
“Atlantis still has a few clothing factories and there are many people who used to work in this industry years ago so this, combined with the fact that our local clothing industry is seeing a spike in interest, could see Atlantis become a clothing manufacturing hub again.”
One of the participants, Garth Blaauw, says he envisions the group joining forces to start a small business which could service local Atlantis businesses.
“These businesses and churches are paying other people lots of money for this service so we could do it and earn a living,” he says.