The Aegean Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters’ Association (EHKİB) aims to accelerate its efforts to strengthen university-industry cooperation in the new period. Çağlar Bağcı, who was recently elected as Chairman of EHKİB, stated during his speech at the EGEREST’26 Textile Summit organised by the Aegean University Textile Community that they want to engage with young people more closely throughout the transformation process of the industry.
“Textile engineering carries strategic importance”
Stating that the understanding of production has changed, Bağcı said that the priority today is no longer to produce more, but to produce in a smarter, more sustainable, environmentally friendly and higher value-added way. Emphasising that the textile and apparel sector is not limited only to production and exports, Bağcı noted that design, engineering, innovation and sustainability are all parts of a strong ecosystem.
Referring to the “My Choice Textile Engineering” project carried out by EHKİB and the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association, Bağcı stated that the initiative later evolved into the “Improving the Perception of Textile Engineering” project across Türkiye. Within the scope of the project, the aim is to encourage successful students towards textile engineering and strengthen the qualified engineering infrastructure needed by the industry.
Emphasis on vocational training
Bağcı stated that more than 100 training programmes have been organised within the scope of the EHKİB Fashion Development Academy in areas such as trends, branding, exports, sustainability and design. He also noted that vocational training programmes continue in fields including assistant patternmaking, work-study, basic textile education and computer-aided pattern preparation.
Stating that textile engineering is one of the professions of strategic importance for Türkiye, Bağcı said that young engineers specialising in areas such as sustainable production, digitalisation, technical textiles, artificial intelligence, traceability and circular economy will assume a stronger role in the future of the industry.
