A Common Facility Centre giving traditional craft clusters shared machinery, training, design help, and market access.
Kottayam has 14,060 manufacturing MSMEs. 67.8% of self-employment loans go to the district's top industry. The Common Facility Centre under SFURTI gives artisan clusters shared equipment they could not afford individually.
77% of registered enterprises are in services while 23% are in manufacturing. Only 8% of employment is in small and medium enterprises. 88% of school-age children are enrolled in higher secondary school (classes 9–12).
In Kottayam, which ranks 3 of 15 in Kerala for youth opportunity, the overall opportunity score is 58.1 out of 100. It runs ahead of the national picture on employment in small and medium enterprises at 7.7% and value added per enterprise worker at ₹2,95,091.