David Lammy's pre-recorded speech to the Skillfast conference on 9 April 2008
The theme of the conference was to look at: what an 'employer-led skills system' for the fashion and textiles sector looks like; what do employers really want; what is the Sector Skills Council for fashion and textiles doing; and what challenges will learning providers face in trying to deliver the employer agenda?
Those attending the conference included awarding bodies, qualifications institutions and departmental heads, course leaders and business development professionals within FE, HE and private training companies.
David Lammy was unable to attend the conference himself and sent this pre-recorded message by video.
Hello, I'm David Lammy, the Minister for Skills and it's a pleasure to send you this short message.
Earlier this year, I attended a 'No Skills, No Fashion' event, organised by Skillfast. It was a glitzy occasion, but it had a deeper purpose - it was to launch a campaign to improve technical skills in the fashion and textiles industry.
People all over the world talk about London, Paris, Milan and New York in the same breath. Our fashion colleges are world famous. Yet that hard-earned kudos hides emerging skills shortages. For instance, some employers complain that home-grown graduates sometimes lack technical, commercial and production skills to turn their visions into reality.
The Government and Skillfast are working hard to ensure that people in the fashion and textiles industries have the skills they need to succeed. It is only through doing this that we can prevent fashion commerce from being unnecessarily off-shored.
Skillfast is in the process of reporting to the Government on the possibility of creating a 'Couture Academy' that might be founded by Jasper Conran. In addition, I believe we must do more to increase the numbers of fashion apprenticeships - especially those of the 'in-house' variety. I know that Skillfast's research shows that there were just 56 apprentices registered between September 2006 and Feb 2008. This is a poor show because as a diverse industry that requires some very specific knowledge and skills, fashion is ideally suited to the apprenticeship pathway. I would like to see smaller fashion and textiles companies clustering together with a training provider to create an apprenticeship scheme or greater use of the hub and spoke model, in which there is someone to deal with the training and necessary bureaucracy, and the company can have the apprentice it needs.
Sector Skills Councils, such as Skillfast, have a vital role as the representatives of their employment sectors. We are currently piloting an approach whereby Skillfast and other SSCs 'approve' vocational qualifications within their sector before accreditation. Providers, employers and awarding bodies can work together to ensure that all accredited qualifications really do meet employers' and learners' needs. This approach also ensures that there is consistency across the sector and that duplication is avoided. Working more closely with employers will help to create a system where qualifications have more value to the industry. This in turn will make it easier for students to progress and will make the industry as a whole more productive.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, QCA, is also piloting ways in which employers can participate more directly in the national qualifications system. Firstly, QCA is accrediting some employers to award their own qualifications - employers that have become accredited so far include Network Rail, Flybe and McDonalds. Around 30 other employers are already working in partnership with awarding bodies to have bespoke training nationally accredited.
Secondly, we know that employers and staff often prefer qualifications that can be taken in 'bite-size' pieces, giving them greater flexibility to fit the learning around the needs of their work and personal lives. To give this greater flexibility, we are reforming the vocational qualification system to enable all qualifications to be made up of units. Students are awarded credit when they complete each unit of learning, enabling recognition of achievements while qualifications are being completed. The credit which learners achieve can also be transferred if they wish to move between providers or employers.
We have been testing the reformed qualifications over the last two years and expect to start rolling out the reforms from this autumn.
Of course, you don't have to be Jean-Paul Gaultier or Vivienne Westwood to work in the fashion and textiles Industry. The fashion and fabrics workforce cuts across a remarkably wide skill-set. From manufacturing fire-retardant nanomaterial coatings for firemen's uniforms, to brokering a 'bra wars' agreement on quotas for Chinese-made clothing exports in Mandarin, the industry is rich and varied. And the changes in the skills profile of this workforce tells a story about the way UK industry is evolving.
In March we published our White Paper 'Innovation Nation' and this sets out how we are going to promote innovation in all sectors and across all sections of society. Exploiting new ideas and technology will be crucial to creating wealth in this industry. And learning providers need to respond to employer needs to help shape a system where skilled workers are able to harness their creativity and come up with new items or products that find their way from the mind to the market more quickly.
Because we know that to make our fashion and retail industry great, we need some pretty high-level niche skills, my Department, Skillfast and funding bodies like HEFCE - the Higher Education Funding Council for England - are working to forge closer links between universities and business. In Government we talk about the value of companies, ideas and research that 'spin-out' of universities. Nowhere is this truer than in the fashion industry, where students' end of year catwalk shows set global trends. For that reason, we need providers' support in seeking to deliver high quality qualifications to a high standard. Education and Learning Providers can work together with Skillfast to continue to articulate the needs of the fashion and retail sector. You can support ways for employers to engage most effectively with further and higher education. And in doing so you will help to ensure that the fashion and clothing industry builds on success, remaining the hotbed of creativity, design and production that it has been for centuries. I hope you have an enjoyable and productive day. Thanks.