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Clothing, Textile and Leather Goods Production Operator
OFO Code: 715302
Last checked 7 October 2026
1. Occupation identity
- OFO code
- 715302
- Occupation
- Clothing, Textile and Leather Goods Production Operator
- Classification
- OFO 2021
- Major group
- PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS AND ASSEMBLERS
- Unit group
- 7153 · Sewing Machine Operators
Official description
Sewing machine operators operate and monitor sewing machines to make, repair, darn and renovate textile, fur, synthetic or leather garments or embroider ornamental designs on garments or other materials. They operate button hole making and eyelet holing machines to cut holes, stitch around holes, stitch buttons and fix eyelets to garments.
More official OFO detail
Specialisations: Textile / Leather / Material Cutting Machine Operator, Industrial Presser, Home Textile Production Machine Operator, Upholstery Machinist, Embroidery Machine Operator
- Operating stitching machines to sew leather parts together for leather garments, handbags, gloves
- Operating or tending sewing machines to perform garment sewing operations, such as joining, reinforcing, seaming or decorating garments or garment parts
- Operating machines, such as single or double needle serging and flat-bed felling machines, to automatically join, reinforce, or decorate material or articles
- Performing equipment maintenance tasks such as replacing needles
- Operating fur sewing machines to join fur pelt strips to required size and shape and join pelts into garment sections or shells
- Tending semiautomatic sewing machines with multiple-sewing heads controlled by pattern chain that embroiders various designs on garments
- Attaching buttons, hooks, zippers, fasteners, or other accessories to fabric, using feeding hoppers or clamp holders
- Monitoring machine operation to detect problems such as defective stitching, breaks in thread, or machine malfunctions
2. Demand status
Demand evidence unavailable
No approved governed OIHD graph relationship is available on this deployment for this OFO code.
PathLens does not fall back to legacy specimen demand flags when governed evidence is unavailable.
A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.
3. Salary evidence
No approved governed salary observation or sourced snapshot salary record is available for this OFO code yet.
Open remuneration history & calculator →4. Quick EE check
How much might Employment Equity matter in this job context?
Answer three quick questions for a rough read. This is workforce context, not a hiring decision.
Select the employer size and your profile to get a quick read.
5. Qualification
Qualification evidence pending.
Understand NQF levels, institutions & recognition → Build my qualification pathway →6. Study funding
Check all funding options, eligibility & obligations →A funding match will only be shown once a recognised qualification or study route has been identified.
7. Industry, sector and provincial context
National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.
No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.
Browse the official South African industry classification →8. Next steps — official links
9. Decision tools
10. Sources for this page
- DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Ingested · identity spine active
Canonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact. - DHET Occupations in High Demand · Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmed
The governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment. - Critical Skills List · Monitored · occupation linkage pending
Official migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone. - QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Candidate staging ready · not published
Qualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review. - Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deployment
Official QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim. - SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Partial · explicit source links only
PathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.