The Central Footwear training Institute (formerly CFTC),   Chennai the premierInstitute of its kind in the country, came into being in July, 1957, with the assistance of Ford Foundation. The erstwhile CFTC was conducting 18 months "Advanced Footwear Technology Course" and Practical oriented need based short - term courses. The CFTC has trained about 6000 candidates, which includes 154 foreign nationals from countries like Nigeria, Mauritius, Philippines, Figi, Tibet, Guyana. Uganda, Zambia Hungary, Srilanka etc.

The Departmentally run Central Footwear Training Centre was converted into an autonomous Institution (Government of India, under the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises, Govt. of India) w.e.f. 1.14.1996 for better functional autonomy and was renamed as "Central Footwear Training Institute" Chennai, (CFTI, Chennai). The Institute is modernised with UNDP assistance under the National Leather Development Programme and is fully equipped with state-of-the art machinery to impart training in the modern methods of Footwear manufacturing.