The textile-care industry is constantly reinventing itself. The ongoing development taking place in mechanical engineering, washing and environmental technology and logistics, plus constant changes to regulations and guidelines, are having consequences for the qualifications required of employees in all specialisms. With a focus on training and careers, Texcare International fulfils the role expected of it as a pioneering and leading international trade fair.
One of the main features of the textile-care industry is the variety of the jobs it offers. This is due to the numerous processes involved in the treatment and distribution of textiles. Consistent, future-oriented development of techniques, technologies and entrepreneurial strategies is extending the work involved even further to include ever new areas, providing employees with many-sided challenges and opportunities for advancement. These are interlinked with comprehensive further training, which supports lifelong learning, and expands and encourages the abilities of skilled workers.
Textile expertise opens doors
The name of the textile-care industry is its programme: the aim of laundries and dry cleaners is to treat textile products in a suitable and professional way, in which process textile-service businesses link them to additional services. So thorough background knowledge is important in the industry, says Professor Lutz Vossbein, Vice Dean of the Textile and Clothing Technology Department of the Polytechnic of the Lower Rhine in Mönchengladbach. “Expertise, from fibre to clothing manufacture, is needed across all levels of the industry. In the textile-supply industry it is a prior condition for the design of commercial laundry which can be successfully leased, of highly robust work clothing and of protective clothing as required by law. In detergent chemistry and mechanical engineering it is the basis for the development of an efficient and effective process technology. And on the part of the textile-care industry knowledge is needed at all levels, from procurement and processing to quality management”, says Vossbein. “The industry offers numerous career possibilities to trained textile cleaners, textile technicians and graduates in Germany.”
Quality, the environment and sustainability need management
Laundries, dry cleaners and textile-service businesses must meet a large number of regulations and laws on hygiene and safety. To cope with these tasks, companies have quality-management and environmental-management staff. They regulate the implementation of regional, national and European standards and ordinances governing product safety and ecology. “Textile service supplies hygiene and safety products for the market. Quality management takes care of that, by setting guidelines for all relevant processes”, explains Vossbein. These run from the procurement of CE-compliant products, to customer-led provision, to proper professional treatment using validated processes, consonant with the assessment of threat established. Environmental management, on the other hand, is concerned with all ecologically relevant matters. “As the industry becomes increasingly committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR), these tasks will be expanded in future to include sustainability management”, Vossbein thinks.
Digital future for logistics experts
Logistics and vehicle-fleet management are core tasks in the textile-care industry. They undertake the planning and organisation of distribution and optimise them to improve their ecological and sustainability-relevant parameters. They implement legal regulations and changes in their companies and ensure the continued training for service drivers required by law. New tasks are already awaiting them. With the advent of laundry tracing through RFID technology and the digitalisation of services, the industry offers specialists an interesting area of work.
Discovering professional potential
The supply industry, too, stands for interesting job prospects. Mechanical engineering, detergent producers and research institutes are developing tomorrow‘s textile care with the help of specialists in chemistry, process engineering, mechanical engineering and plant construction. Sectors covering every aspect of the processing and distribution of textiles will be represented at Texcare International, the leading international trade fair. This makes it the ideal forum for professionals who are looking for a future career in an innovative but underestimated industry. And the Texcare forum on Saturday has taken as its motto, “Training and career – the next generation of professionals.” Experts will be talking on subjects such as the dual training system and its opportunities, and careers in textile care. At the fair itself a job exchange will enable visitors to find information about what is on offer in the industry.
More information about Texcare International at www.texcare.com.
Follow Texcare on social media at: