What is happening to Skillfast-UK?
The fashion and textiles sector has joined forces with Skillset. A limited number of services provided by Skillfast-UK have moved over to Skillset. This means that a reduced number of dedicated staff are continuing to work on the fashion and textiles sector across England and the Devolved Nations. Skillset represents a broad range of creative businesses and this move provides the creative industries with an even stronger voice.
What does this mean for the fashion and textiles industry?
This move is very good news for the industry for so many reasons, not least because:
- There are strong synergies between skills issued faced by fashion and textiles employers and other parts of the creative industries, such as a reliance on mostly graduate entry and intense competition from overseas;
- A new Skills Council of fashion and textiles employers has been created, supported by a manager with strong industry knowledge;
- Skillfast-UK's team of fashion and textiles Standards and Qualifications specialists have transferred over to Skillset, which means this industry-endorsed programme of work continues as planned;
- Skillset will be able to bid for new funds for training for fashion and textiles so that the industry will continue to benefit from special initiatives such as Women in Work;
- A fashion and textiles research manager provides expert intelligence on the sector;
- A Strategic Skills Assessment of the fashion and textiles industry will be submitted to Government on 1 December 2010, alongside those submitted for the Creative Media industries.
What is the impact on representation for fashion and textiles in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
A Nations Manager has been appointed who has responsibility for representing the sector in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This person is based in Scotland and is tasked with maintaining, and building on, the already excellent progress that has been made around fashion and textiles in the Devolved Nations.
Why is Skillfast-UK not staying as a single Sector Skills Council?
Skillfast-UK was informed in June 2009 that it would not be given a new operating licence and that funding would be withdrawn in March 2010. This was against a backdrop of public-sector spending cuts and the publication of a new White Paper on Skills, which announced the Government's intention to reduce the number of SSCs. But more than 80 fashion and textiles employers lobbied political representatives to secure continuing SSC representation for their sector.
What has happened to current Skillfast-UK staff?
All 32 Skillfast-UK staff have been issued with redundancy notices, but nine have been successful in securing new job opportunities within Skillset to continue some aspects of the work for the fashion and textiles sector.
Why did Skillfast-UK decide to join forces with Skillset?
Skillset already represents a workforce of more than 500,000 in the Creative Media Industries. This move will provide the creative industries with an even stronger voice. Skillset has long been recognised as one of the highest-achieving SSCs.
Both organisations already share many skills issues and workforce characteristics, such as a focus on innovation and creative production, emerging technology offering new opportunities challenges and similar employment structure. In a nutshell, there was a tremendous amount of synergy between the two SSCs.
What was the process for selecting another Sector Skills Council to join up with?
Skillfast-UK's Board of Directors considered the value of an alliance with five SSCs and requested detailed proposals from two of these. Each proposal was carefully evaluated against several criteria, including understanding of issues in the fashion and textiles industry, level of service to be provided and the ability to offer fashion and textiles a position of influence in the future. Skillset was selected after extensive discussions with board members.
What are the views of the Skillfast-UK sector to this move?
The sector has been very keen that the Skillfast-UK "footprint" should not be split between different sector skills councils. The sector has also been clear that it wishes the work on qualifications to continue. So the decision to go to Skillset is totally in line with the sector's wishes.