BRANCH-RELATED TERMS FOR TEXTILE PROFESSIONALS IN BUSINESS AND TRADE

Abstract

Proper adaptation to industry trends represents nowadays one of the key success factors. The textile industry is one of the most dynamic industries, with strong market requirements and links to tradition in Europe. Due to the harsh international competition a shift in the textile industry in Europe has been produced from clothing-apparel sector to technical textiles sector. The technical textiles are meant for various applications (like agriculture, personal protection, medicine, environment etc.) and involve a high level of knowledge in textile machinery and high added value for the finished products. One of the main issues stated in the Strategic Research Agenda of the European Technology Platform for Textiles and Clothing (EURATEX*, 2006) is the move from commodities to specialty products with flexible high-tech processes, which is a development direction for the future of the European textile industry. The strong developments of textile international business bring new demand ? to have a Multilanguage flexible tool for branch-related terms. Businessman are often good in trade but without professional knowledge. They have to describe technical aspects, but do not know the proper expression. In order to help them were accomplished the Leonardo da Vinci-TOI projects Fashion School I and II and a new proposal is in preparation for the 2013 Call ? GUIDETEX. Within the Fashion School projects I and II an on-line explanatory dictionary in 16 European language versions was accomplished (www.texsite.info). This dictionary includes 2000 branch expressions with definitions in the textile-clothing field. A brief summary of the projects results show that after 3 years form the project end, the average visitation of the portal is of 49109 visits each month. As target group of the project were firstly businessman who deal with textiles and clothes, students of vocational education and professionals who export their products. The 2013 GUIDETEX proposal envisages the enlargement of the portal with branch-related terms in technical textiles. Several professionals in the textile industry do need a re-orientation of their business towards high-added-value products in technical textiles, as set by the EURATEX strategy. This is one of the means for supporting the knowledge-based European industry business and trade.