Shoe and Leather Workers Career Opportunities

Career as shoe and leather workers is a challenging career, but also an interesting career for those who have creative and artistic skills. The main job of the shoe and leather workers is to construct, decorate, and repair leather and related products like luggage, shoes, and saddles. These workers produce different goods and so should be flexible enough to perform different tasks.

Tasks:-

The career as shoe and leather workers is a unique career option for portraying creative and artistic skills. Shoe and leather workers are performing many tasks. They are follows:

• Shoe and leather workers construct, decorate and repair shoes, belts, bags, luggage, saddles, and other leather articles.
• Some of them may also repair articles made from canvas and plastic
• When making luggage, the workers wrap leather to a frame and attach handles and other accessories. They also decorate the outer surface
• When making customized shoes or modifying the existing ones, the workers cut pieces of leather, fold them in different foot shapes, and sew them together. They then attach soles, and heels and decorate the outer surface as per the latest styles and trends
• Saddle makers often apply leather dyes and liquid topcoats to produce a glossy effect on the saddle

Qualification:-

The career as shoe and leather workers is an upcoming career that needs highly skilled candidates. There is no specific educational requirement. However, to gain good jobs there are certain qualification requirement. They are follows:

• Training programs related to leather artistic works, and other related programs are taught in some training programs
• There are very few colleges or institutes that provide certifications for shoe and leather workers
• Most of the employers provide on-job training and the workers learn more during their apprenticeship period
• To acquire good jobs these workers need to update their knowledge and therefore need to attend trade shows or trainings from product manufacturers to gain knowledge about the latest footwear styles and designs

Other necessary skills:-

Career as shoe and leather workers is a challenging career as there are many tasks involved in their daily work. Therefore, the shoe and leather workers need to be highly skilled and need to acquire the following skills:

• Excellent interpersonal and written skills
• Exceptionally creative, analytical and logical skills
• Good organizational and time management skills
• Excellent observations skills, and good coordination in hand-work

Place of work:-

Career as shoe and leather workers is tricky, where the worker need to have strong mechanical aptitude. The workers need to work with machineries as well as perform handiwork. The place of work differs based on the type of industries. These workers normally work for 35- 40 hours a week. However, those who have their own repair shops may have to work for longer time.

Job Opportunities:-

There are tremendous job opportunities available in this career as shoe and leather workers. The industries that demand for the shoe and leather workers are as follows:

• Footwear manufacturers
• Shoe repair shops
• Luggage and handbags manufacturers
• Leather articles manufacturing firms

Other than these industries, most of the workers work independently and have their own repair shops of footwear and other leather products.

Remuneration:-

Career as shoe and leather workers is a booming career. The leather footwear and new footwear styles are gaining demand in the market. Thus, these workers are needed in large numbers and so are highly paid. The salary also differs based on the industries, type of work, education and experience. The salary for the helpers or trainees is comparatively less. The salary goes on increasing with years of experience.

Job Progress:-

Career as shoe and leather workers is a demanding career and there are tremendous chances of promotions in this career. The interested candidates acquire knowledge in this field as helpers or trainee workers. With years of experience, the shoe and leather workers can handle more skilled work and acquire positions like supervisors or trainers in large-scale industries.

Employment forecast:-

The employment growth in the career as shoe and leather workers is expected to decline in the future. The increasing number of leather and footwear being imported has hampered the domestic production. The shoes and leather goods have become cheaper in the market. Thus, the need to repair these products has lowered as new ones easily replace them. Thus, the demand for shoe repairers has lowered. The manufacturing industries of leather articles have started using automated machineries. Thus, the manufacturing process of footwear, luggage and bags has improved greatly. Therefore, manufacturers invest in machineries and lower the number of workers. Therefore, the employment growth is supposed to decline in the future. However, job opportunities will arise as there will be a need to replace old employees with new talented workers.