Today’s UK Sunday Independent has a pretty shocking piece on how skills training have taken a back seat at Fashion schools in the UK.

The quote of one Mai Cheetham somes it up nicely -

“I did a BTEC in tailoring at London College of Fashion. As a foreign student I had to pay fees of £7,000 a year. We were supposed to be taught pattern-cutting, tailoring, how to make a basic three-piece suit, that sort of thing, but there were 30 or 40 of us in each class. I hadn’t got any experience in tailoring, so I had to do a three-month work placement with a tailor when I finished to try to pick up the skills.

“It was really helpful. I learnt how to sew, to finish the garments, and lots of other things. I’m now working for a company that supplies Arcadia, the owner of stores such as Topshop and Dorothy Perkins. I’ve also had to have further training on the job to improve my skills.”

This is a huge problem and the UK fashion scene could suffer because of it. The Independent says:

“While British designers dominate the world’s fashion houses, the skilled artisans needed to translate the designers’ visions into reality are becoming scarce. More than 3,000 fashion students graduate from UK universities each year, yet only 500 can expect to get jobs in their chosen field, with designers claiming that they could employ more graduates if they had the requisite technical skills.”