Revised SAFT course held in the UK

Reporting on the recent SATRA training course for footwear technologists which used the full updated syllabus.

In a global and competitive marketplace, knowledge of footwear development, manufacturing and sourcing – as well as related skills – are increasingly important. To address this issue, SATRA designed the internationally-renowned ‘SATRA Accredited Footwear Technologist’ (SAFT) training course for all technologists involved in any aspect of the footwear supply chain.

When the SAFT course was first introduced some 21 years ago, it consisted of five modules. In 2012, this number was increased to six with the addition of ‘Industrial Footwear’. The course was recently updated again in order to modernise the subject matter and provide a more comprehensive and relevant syllabus, with the new content fully rolled out in April 2022.

The new course now consists of seven modules, which are each covered in two days. The new programme consists of the following modules: 1 – ‘Lasts, fitting & comfort’, 2 – ‘Materials’, 3 – ‘Testing’, 4 – ‘Constructions & product design’, 5 – ‘Risk assessment & quality assurance’, 6 – ‘Industrial footwear’ and 7 – ‘Production efficiency, costing & specifications.

Students can take as many modules as they wish, and will still have the opportunity to take optional examinations for each module. In order to achieve the complete SAFT award, they must achieve an examination pass in five out of the seven modules, including compulsory core modules 1, 2 and 4.

An international class

In addition to three UK-based students attending the recent sessions, others travelled in from Finland, Germany, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the USA, making this a truly international gathering. Two of these students received training in all seven modules, with the others attending between one and five of the sessions.

How did the students benefit from the SAFT course? One wrote the following in an email to colleagues in her company: “I have been on the SATRA training course this last week and have done modules one and four. They are repeating all modules, I believe in September/November, and I will be doing remaining modules two, three and five then. So far, all the modules have been excellent. I think these courses can also be extremely beneficial to you all with a footwear background already or just starting out.”

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 18 of the May 2022 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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