Pou Chen's footwear manufacturing unit in Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu, has launched a skill training initiative, DT Next reports.

The programme targets workers in and around the Kallakurichi district, where the Taiwanese contract footwear manufacturer operates production for international athletic and casual footwear brands. Pou Chen ranks among the world's largest athletic shoe makers and supplies brands including Nike and Adidas from a network of plants across Vietnam, China, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh.

The training initiative signals the company's effort to deepen its local labour pool at the Tamil Nadu site. Footwear assembly demands stitchers, cutters, machine operators and quality-control staff with specific competencies, and manufacturers expanding in India have repeatedly cited skills gaps as a constraint on ramping up output.

Details on trainee numbers, course duration, curriculum partners and cost of the programme were not disclosed in the report. The company has not stated publicly whether the initiative ties to a planned capacity increase at the Kallakurichi plant.

The move comes as global footwear sourcing continues to diversify beyond China and Vietnam, with India positioning itself as an alternative production base. Tamil Nadu, alongside competitors in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu's established leather footwear cluster around Ambur and Vellore, has attracted contract manufacturers seeking tariff resilience and cost advantages.

For sourcing teams placing footwear orders with Pou Chen, the Kallakurichi training programme is an early indicator of workforce investment at the Indian site. Buyers tracking capacity allocation across the supplier's Asian footprint should monitor whether the initiative scales into sustained output growth — and whether Pou Chen commits capital investment behind it.

The compliance angle is narrower but real: trained operators reduce defect rates and support auditors' checks on production competence during social and quality inspections. Buyers will want confirmation of the training standards applied and whether the programme aligns with any state or national skill-development framework.

The decision the news forces is procedural rather than urgent. Sourcing executives with volumes at Kallakurichi — or considering shifting volumes there — should ask Pou Chen for the programme's scale, graduation targets and linkage to order capacity before treating the Indian unit as a growth node in their 2025-26 allocation plans.