Agra has been renowned at the national and international levels as a centre for educational excellence, and industrial developments apart from tourist attraction. The city not only attracts foreign visitors for site-seeing but the industries like Leather, Foundry and Handicrafts also made it very popular across the globe.

Although the Footwear manufacturing in this area had started centuries before Indian independence, but the sector was not fully developed, as the basic infrastructure was not available at that time. It was actually beginning of sixties when the leather producers and other entrepreneurs thought of value addition to leather by converting it into footwear and other leather goods as the basic raw material i.e. leather was available in abundance. Although, the skilled workforce was available in plenty in some parts of the country, but there was acute shortage of managerial and the supervisory staff with technical qualifications. This was a severe problem and was acting as a major hindrance in the development of the footwear industry in the country. To overcome this problem, Government of India established "Central Footwear Training Centre , Agra" in July 1963, under Small Industries Development Organization, Ministry of Industry with financial assistance from Ford Foundation. The erstwhile Centre was well equipped with latest imported machines. The prime objective of the Centre was to provide young and technically sound personnel to the footwear industry and to upgrade the knowledge and skill of the existing staff.

Additions and necessary changes have been made in the infrastructure and management of the Centre from time to time. But with the rapid growth of the footwear industry in the country and with the introduction of modern machines in the industry, great need was felt by the centre to modernize its infrastructure. To cater the requirements of the industry, complete modern plant of the footwear manufacture was imported in the Year 1993, with financial assistance from United Nations Industrial Development Organization under National Leather Development Programme.

It was the 1st January, 1996, when the Central Footwear Training Centre, Agra, was converted into an autonomous body and called Central Footwear Training Institute, A Govt. of India society under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary/Development Commissioner (Small Scale Industry), Small Industries Development Organization, Ministry of Industry, Government of India, with an objective of quicker implementation of managerial decisions.

The campus of the Institute is on a 7500 sq. meter landscape spread on the western side of the Agra-Delhi highway at Sikandra, 10 kms from Raja-Ki-Mandi railway station and 12 kms from Agra Cantt railway station. The Institute is well connected from the city and is easily approachable by city bus service. In our campus we have separate sections for separate operations like DESIGNING, CLICKING, CLOSING, LASTING, TESTING, INTERNETLAB, CAD LAB, Etc. Other than this institute has recreation rooms and canteen for the students to spend forget their hectic and tired day. This idyllic campus is the fast track to developing into an ideal breeding ground for refreshing thoughts and ideas.