Our Bureau

Coimbatore , Oct. 7

THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tamilnadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW) are to launch a programme here for training the women in the operation of CNC (computer numerically controlled) machines.

The tie-up is to facilitate the vocational training of at least 1,000 women over the next few years and it is aimed at addressing the acute shortage of skilled CNC machine operators, according to Mrs Nandini Rangaswamy, Chairperson of the CII, Coimbatore Zone.

To start with, 100 women would be selected for training before the current fiscal year-end.The CII Coimbatore has also proposed to find placement for trained women in the member-industries. The training programme would be offered in association with the three city-based institutes, including PSG College of Technology and G D Training Institute.

The CII Coimbatore and the TNCDW would form a committee to select women for the three-month training course. The cost for the programme would be shared by the corporation and the CII, while the women trainees would be bearing a nominal fee, said Mr K. Skandan, Managing Director of the TNCDW, who was present at a meet on `CNC Technology: Achieving Operational Efficiency' organised by the CII Coimbatore here on Friday.

The deployment of women trained in CNC machine operations would benefit the engineering industry here, especially in the wake of the removal of legal hurdles in the way of employing women workers in night shifts.

According to Mr Jayakumar Ramdass, Vice-Chairman of the CII Coimbatore zone, of the estimated 1,300 CNC machines in operation in the region, over 350 were added very recently which has triggered the demand for more trained workers. The paucity in supply of trained operators has led to underutilisation of the CNC machine capacity leading to lower productivity from the engineering sector.

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