Dr. Roopak Vasishtha is the CEO and Director General of Apparel Made-ups & Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council. He has a total experience of 32 years in leadership roles in the education and HR sphere in varied industries of Apparel, Automobile and Healthcare industries.

Prior to joining Apparel Made-ups & Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council, he worked with Dr. Lal Path Labs, India’s leading Diagnostic chain as Vice President-HR and headed the Education and legal wings. Earlier, he was associated with Apparel Export Promotion Council, the Apex body of the exporters of Apparels in India, like CII and FICCI. During his stay with this concern, which employed more than 3000 experts of International Trade in more than 30 locations across India and abroad, he headed its Human Resources function at their corporate office in Gurgaon. During his stint there, in addition to the HR functions, he spearheaded the establishment and growth of its education wing, the Apparel Training and Design Center across 25 states. The said institution imparts training in Apparel Trade to more than 50000 students every year.

Dr. Roopak has also worked with Escorts Ltd. in its Yamaha Motorcycle Division. In Escorts, he was instrumental in building a strong 3000 workforce of the best of the Engineers and technical hands and training them with the Japanese style of working. An alumni of IMM, Dr. Roopak is a Post Graduate in Business Administration and Human Resources Development and has done Ph.D in Human Resources.

As a part of his hobby, he is also an approved Announcer with the All India Radio, has given background voice in many films of National Geographic Channel and Films Division of India and has read news in television. He also writes articles for Hindustan Times and various magazines of Human Resources and Industrial relations.

In the interview he answers the following:

1. Why was the apparel skill sector council founded and what is its main objective?

2. How does the council carry out an assessment of training programs and why is it necessary?

3. With the current covid crisis, what changes in demand are you expecting in the apparel industry?

4. What are some private institutions that the council has partnered with?

5. What is the biggest challenge facing the skilling sector in the future?

Impact-Talk is a series of views and interviews of CSR heads, impact leaders and change-makers, addressing development challenges in India. If you have an impact-maker in your network, please suggest/share details at shilpi@csrbox.org