Part of the mission of the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) to support the Philippine textile, garment, and allied micro, small, and medium enterprises is the enhancement of the human resource capabilities in furtherance of particular projects of the Institute. Last year, a good number of the Institute’s Research and Development Division (RDD) and TSD personnel attended foreign trainings and workshops under the auspices of the DOST-PCIEERD funded Revitalization of the Philippine Textile Industry Through Science and Technology, the experiences and learnings from which, were shared with their coworkers in an echo seminar organized on September 4 and 7 in the PTRI’s Training Room.
The first day of the echo seminar covered three topics from the Institute’s RDD team. Engr. Ronald Pechera discussed “Knit and Woven Fabric Design and Development” from his training with North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Textiles. Ms. Evangeline Flor Manalang, on the other hand, talked about “Textile Product Management Quality Control and Certification”, a training she had with the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI). “Functional Textile Processing and Testing” was shared by Ms. Zailla Flores from her training also with the TTRI.
Two weaving-related topics were discussed on the second day: “Advanced Handloom Weaving” by Ms. Josefa Garlitos and “Beginner Jacquard Weaving” by Engr. Henry Listano. They were both taken at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Melbourne, Australia. Lastly, Mr. Eduardo M. Marin shared with the participants “Non-Woven Manufacturing Processes”, a training he took also at the NCSU College of Textiles.
The echo seminar provided different insight to the participants. Ms. Mary Joanne Lesaca of PTRI’s RDD and an attendee to the event said: “As researchers, information is king. The echo seminar conducted by our colleagues proved just that.” Referring to the topic discussed by Ms. Manalang she added that she agrees with the concept of ‘circular economy’ in which the basic idea is redesigning for reuse. These training and learning opportunities, both in the country and abroad, should provide the encouragement and capacity as well as the challenge to the Institute’s teams to craft projects and services that will be responsive to the demands of the competitive industry sector that is textiles. May the information-sharing in these echo seminars bring us to deeper knowledge with which to power up the work of the PTRI.
