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The fashion and textiles sector now has new strategic representation on skills. The UK's 79,000 fashion and textiles businesses have joined Skillset's footprint in a move that will give employers a stronger lobbying voice on skills issues for the future.
Skillset already represents the skills needs of more than 500,000 workers. With the addition of fashion and textiles, Skillset's portfolio of industries now contribute £45 billion to the UK economy each year.
Previously, the fashion and textiles sector had its own Sector Skills Council - Skillfast-UK. However, the government announced that Skillfast-UK's licence to operate was not to be renewed after 31 March 2010. The announcement came shortly after the launch of the government's new Skills White Paper, Skills for Growth, which proposed significant reductions in the number of Sector Skills Councils by 2012.
The decision for Skillset to represent the fashion and textiles sector on skills was made by Skillfast-UK's Board, which comprises prominent fashion and textiles industrialists, trade associations and union representation. After investigating a number of potential alliances, the Board selected Skillset as offering the strongest strategic positioning for the UK's fashion and textiles industry.
The creative media industries share a number of key skills issues with the fashion and textiles sector, including the need for those involved in creative jobs to have the necessary technical and business skills to realise their vision and a lack of suitable training to help workers to develop their skills after they join the industry.
Within Skillset, fashion and textiles sector interests will be represented by:
- A newly-created Fashion and Textiles Skills Council, a committee comprising senior fashion and textile industry figures who will steer sector activity;
- A high-profile representative on the Skillset's influential Board of Directors, which is chaired by GMTV chairman Clive Jones, and deputy-chaired by Icon Entertainment UK chief executive, Stewart Till
- A dedicated staff team specialising in fashion and textiles work, including a Sector Engagement Manager, qualifications specialists, a Scotland-based manager to support work in the devolved nations and a senior researcher.
These pages will be updated soon with further details of Skillset's work in this area.
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