Skillset welcomes almost 80,000 fashion and textiles employers
In a move that brings them usefully closer to the Arts Group’s remit, Skillset have announced the following:
“Skillset will from the beginning of April join forces with fashion and textiles to create one of the biggest Sector Skills Councils in the UK.
Following a number of changes to the Sector Skills Council network, Skillset, the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses in the UK creative media industries, is welcoming the fashion and textiles sector.
Skillset’s footprint already includes TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation, computer games, facilities, photo imaging and publishing. It will now have a combined portfolio worth more than £45 billion to the economy each year and the move is expected to give employers a stronger lobbying voice on skills issues for the future.
This transition has been seamless and Skillset has a dedicated staff team specialising in fashion and textiles work, many of which have transferred from Skillfast-UK, which previously represented the sector.
This team will continue to implement the UK fashion and textiles industry-endorsed work programme and Skillset will be able to bid for new funds for training for the sector. The team will include a dedicated Nations manager based in Scotland, whose role is to support work in the devolved nations and a number of qualifications specialists.
Skillset Chief Executive Dinah Caine said: “We are pleased to be expanding Skillset and welcoming new and complementary industries to our sector. There are strong synergies between the skills issues faced by fashion and textiles employers and those in the creative media.
“Shared concerns include the reliance on mostly graduate entry and intense competition from overseas.”
The fashion and textiles sector makes up an important part of the UK economy contributing more than £11.5 billion each year.
Skillset will be carrying out research to identify skills needs in fashion and textiles and producing an annual assessment of what these are. For a more detailed analysis of the current fashion and textiles skills landscape please read the Strategic Skills Assessment for the UK Fashion and Textiles Sector in the UK at www.skillset.org/research/index/#ssa“
We look forward to working with Skillset in their enhanced remit, particularly our sources suggest the Fashion Houses are far from up to standard in their internship practices and would really benefit from using Skillset’s new guidelines!
