Transforming the Quality of Workforce in the Textile and Apparel Industry through Digital Empowerment (Working Paper)

Abstract

Keywords Textile and apparel industry has long been stereotyped as "traditional" and "old-fashioned". As a non-traditional company in a traditional industry, Esquel encourages employees to innovate and to challenge the status quo. "You can code" campaign was initiated in 2015 to engage and propel staff at all levels towards its vision of "Making a Difference". The campaign aims to drive a sustained cultural transformation to turn the less technically minded employees into confident users of technology with computational thinking (CT) ability, through developing mobile apps. Developing mobile apps is a tool to empower the employees. By changing their attitude in using technology and equipping them with computation thinking ability, employees will become more systematic and innovative in solving problems at workplace, and eventually improve their productivity.