Sustainable Fashion Employability Skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Fashion Employability Skills

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Environment and climate change; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

This project aims to create outputs (White paper and a Toolkit) for the fashion industry that will support the implementation of sustainability strategies and foster employability skills through a mix of interdisciplinary and multicultural innovative learning activities. The recurring questions facing industry, also recognised by the EU, in terms of a skills gap in this area are; what does sustainability actually mean? what form of corporate activity falls under the sustainability umbrella? and who can implement it? The project has innovation at its core, from recognisable formats based around technology, but more importantly, from the community platform that will be developed and nurtured. The community will be formed from a multidisciplinary and multicultural base with a variety of individuals having the opportunity to work together and share best practice, providing a unique project design. The current Covid 19 crisis is having an impact on business as a whole and fashion industry experts are already recognising the changes which may emerge post crisis, most notably, in sustainability practices. For example, the Business of Fashion 2020 Coronavirus update specifically highlights the change for consumers. Also, a recent webinar (April 2020) held by Spanish Vogue, indicated that the global industry will expect to see a contracted, but more focused on sustainability, workforce.This project addresses this skills gap related to the understanding, implementation and communication of sustainability within a business environment taking fashion as a context.

The objectives are to:
1. Examine current activity in relation to the nature of sustainability strategies in companies using the fashion industry as a case study;
2. Determine employability skills and competences required for applying sustainability strategies in a fashion context;
3. Deliver and evaluate an industry informed 3 x 1 week Intensive Study Period (ISP) for students, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and industry participants;
4. Develop a White Paper related to the 3 key aspects of the project, namely, the understanding of sustainability, its implementation in the fashion industry and the review of the potential skills gap between what is offered by HEI’s and what industry requires;
5. Provide HEIs with a Toolkit to facilitate students’ understanding and implementation of sustainability in a real world setting.

The partnership is made up of 5 Higher Education partners and 2 Industry partners from the UK, France, Portugal and Spain showing complementary expertise. Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) – specialises in sustainable fashion, climate change and environmental management; Centro Universitario Villanueva, Madrid (CUV) – have strong links with Spanish fashion brands; Edhec, France specialise in sustainable luxury; Universidad da Madeira (UMa) span sustainability and management and Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) bring expertise in digital skills and communication. The industry partners are Harris Tweed Hebrides (Scotland) the luxury brand textile company and Tendam Retail (Spain), the 2nd largest Spanish retail group of fashion brands.

In terms of participants, over the 3 years, 90 multidisciplinary and multinational students will be immersed in a range of learning situations. The project aims to encourage a proportion of students per institution which may be facing a situation that makes their participation more difficult (such as a disability/facing economic or social obstacles or from a widening participation background (currently about 40% of GCU students are in this grouping) and provision is made in the budget for this. The project has been created with both diversity and gender balance in mind which will be carried through into the recruitment of the participants and staff involved.

The activities, which include week-long Intensive Study Periods (ISP’s), will equip students with the skills and competencies to enhance their employability in a sustainable business and create a community for knowledge exchange between HEIs and Industry.

The project will be managed following a yearly continuous improvement cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) and supported by internal evaluation by all partners and participants as well as expert Independent External Evaluators to ensure annual enhancement.

The targeted outputs include a White Paper on the implementation of sustainability and a Toolkit aimed at HEIs to underpin the teaching of skills required to implement sustainability. In addition, a 5 ECTS sustainability module will be developed as part of the ISP’s. The impact of this project is underpinned by a robust dissemination plan, which starts at the beginning of the project and which aims to build an interactive community around sustainability. The knowledge generated will also involve co-creation and crowd sourcing which underpins the project’s longevity by ensuring it will be active following the end of the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 291559 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE GLASGOW CALEDONIAN UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• TENDAM RETAIL S.A.
• ASSOCIATION EDHEC BUSINESS SCHOOL
• Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd
• UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
• Universidade da Madeira
• UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA