| Can you cut it in fashion? |
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For every six students graduating this summer with a degree in fashion design there is just one job as a fashion designer. So, as the dust settles on another colourful and hugely successful Graduate Fashion Week, Skillfast-UK, the Sector Skills Council for fashion and textiles is keen to encourage more students to take advantage of the Can U Cut It website – www.canucutit.co.uk – a fantastic tool for those thinking about or embarking on a career in fashion. www.canucutit.co.uk offers insight about the breadth of creative careers open to fashion graduates and offers guidance and advice on the technical skills that employers want. Many young people grow up with the desire to enter what they think is a hugely glamorous fashion industry. The image isn’t too far from the truth, but what many aspiring designers don’t know is that a fashion designer is only one person who makes up a far bigger team that delivers fashion to the market. There are lots of well-paid, exciting (and glamorous) careers that require a good understanding of how clothes are designed and made. As the market changes and evolves and more products are manufactured abroad, there are increasing opportunities in the technology and production side of the industry. Linda Florance, Chief Executive of Skillfast-UK says: “The industry needs people who are open to wider career opportunities. We are currently trying to increase the awareness of the various jobs available within the fashion industry so that the industry is not faced with an over supply of fashion designers and an under-supply of other roles.” Earlier this month Skillfast-UK brought its ‘no skills, no fashion’ campaign to Graduate Fashion Week. The campaign aims to lobby the government to re-assess the way in which fashion courses are delivered to enable more technical skills to be delivered and taught. The ‘no skills, no fashion’ team drummed up even more support – adding hundreds of new signatures to the petition. Big fashion brands, students and their tutors were among those who took the time to throw their weight behind the campaign. Linda continues: “Many people are sadly not aware of the skills shortages that exist within the industry, skilled individuals such as garment technologists and pattern cutters are in high-demand and low-supply whereas designers are in high-supply and only one in six of these people will get a job.” The Can U Cut It website has been designed to help graduates, students and young people thinking about a career in the fashion industry. It offers them advice and guidance and is packed full of useful case studies of people working in the industry, job profiles, top tips from leading industry brands and experts. There are useful links and qualification advice as well as a Q&A forum. Linda Florance concludes: “Our fashion industry is internationally renowned but there are many talented graduates leaving university each year with a distorted view of the industry, unaware of the many jobs open to them. Sadly this results in talented graduates leaving the industry - and a fashion sector facing a growing skills crisis.”
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