Leicestershire Textiles – Shaping the Future

Event Date: 16 May 2016

Location: Leicester City Council, City Hall, 115 Charles Street, Leicester, LE1 1FZ

Workshop Notes

Group A

Discussion Topic:What are the skills gaps now and in the future and how should the sector respond to this?

Attracting Younger Generation

  • Lack of awareness regarding career progression
  • Lack of opportunity to offer work experience / internships to students leading to a Mismatch between business and education.
  • No role models
  • Employment issues within communities
  • Awareness raising is needed in young people
  • Early engagement in schools
  • Employers to work with schools to showcase the opportunities in the sector.
  • Teachers need to be made aware of careers in the sector
  • Negative perceptions of the sector need to be overcome
  • Key skills are being lost and need to be replaced
  • Links need to be developed between education and employers
  • Getting students interested via YouTube films etc.
  • Make the job roles/ profession interesting
  • School to learn your ‘basic skills’
  • Student awareness / information
  • Links to schools
  • Clean up current industry – not aware of good practice / work standards
  • Need to relearn new skills & professionalise the industry – channelled into the community
  • Needs to be a level playing field
  • Ethical practices
  • Education of buyers / open costings
  • Working / ambassadors
  • There are roles that may be more attractive including:
  • Knitting machine mechanics
  • Colour technologists
  • Mechanics – to fix breakdowns … to help keep staff
  • Professional level of technicians ‘dye house guru’
  • Digital / technical QA / technical screen printing

Training and skills centre

  • A centre of excellence is needed
  • Physical centre in the right place
  • Will make this time to engage because this intervention is needed
  • This centre must cover a whole range of skills needed to produce garments
  • A common training fund could help to make the centre more sustainable
  • Retailer contributions could be sought
  • A good environment is needed within the centre

Smarter Ways

  • Employer levy to help fund the centre
  • This could be staggered so employers pay different amounts depending on what they need.
  • Large employer engagement could encourage smaller business to get involved.
  • Incentivise ethical employers who train
  • Improvement sector reputation / historical productions / improved payment scales

Leicestershire Textiles – Shaping the Future

Group B:

Discussion Topic:What business support will be needed in the future and how should this be delivered?

Leicestershire Textiles Hub

  • Most were aware of the hub website but not all were registered on it and use had been limited. If the content is better this will drive the traffic.
  • LTH should be generating leads for local businesses
  • Editorial in industry magazines e.g. Draper feature businesses from different manufacturing e.g. 4 knitwear companies – USA, Germany, China articles going in to overseas trade press – more marketing and case studies. Showcase a product – company x has just sold 10K of these – share knowledge and expertise, market knowledge
  • If the buyers use LTH then it is more attractive for manufacturers to engage. Could work with UKTI others over content for international markets.
  • Alibaba was mentioned as an example as was Scottish Enterprises and Make It British – video content – featured factories –the 4 factors M&S are trying to base a strategy around are the good hooks
  • Non biased – foreign language pages – trusted help forums all could be good, although the immediacy of help via forums was questioned
  • Companies need to be willing to open doors for podcasts
  • Develop a YouTube channel
  • Loughborough University and Leicester University also want to engage with to offer business support

Business Support

  • With the sector support help service funded by ERDF in mind and the prospect of a further call next month the table discussed the business support required by the sector.
  • Grants and loans are important especially for some of the smaller companies but the biggest area of support required was in skills, recruitment, training and apprenticeships.
  • There were issues with both creatives and lower level skills. The ageing workforce etc. An advisor needed to know how to guide a firm through all the agencies to try and assist them in getting help with training and recruitment.
  • Links to universities and the ability to set up intern-ships would be very useful. Length of order book can be a big issue sometimes its lower than 8 weeks – this is why the academy would be so useful as it can help to flex people in when required.
  • JCP could help to job match for vacancies wit lower level skills. They offer employer stands to showcase vacancies and opportunities.
  • ESF call needs to address skill shortfall in textiles
  • Need a Skills Bank – train staff with different skills to fill vacancies but operate like an agency to meet flexibility of employer demand. Also need creatives – people can use illustrator, photography, design.
  • Access to finance – need varies from business to business
  • Mass manufacturers need a separate stream of support to the smaller employers
  • Is there a need for Supplier portal, quality control supply chain initiative – how can small manufacturers meet compliance for likes of M&S, Next etc? Could work for mass procurement opportunities
  • Manufacturers work closer but textile printers/knitwear more in isolation

One Stop Shop – Physical Hub

  • Possibly best for start-ups and small creatives (incubators) with the emphasis on fast fashion
  • Would help to emphasise the Made in Leicester brand and coverage of the sector – a focal point
  • There is a definite opportunity to have demonstrations of new equipment and presentations, tax issues marketing, buyer supplier engagement– Coffee and questions gatherings
  • People would like to see demonstrations of new equipment trends
  • Most people now use Vetigraph and some would allow demonstrations on their factory sites if the right notice and numbers were put into place
  • Technology beyond Vetigraph – next wave is interesting but a lot of people sub contract out what they can’t do e.g. CMT, Cutting,etc
  • Will be used by existing businesses if they can access skills and relevant services
  • Do textile businesses have capacity for workshop space so that good employers and premises can be showcased? Have boardrooms and could do a quick tour of premises. Businesses may be interested in going to an event rather than a location.
  • There was support for a Board to steer the development of the sector – but the roles and responsibilities and time commitments needed to be defined first before people would be more definite about supporting it.

Leicestershire Textiles – Shaping the Future

Group C

Discussion Topic:How should the sector collectively respond to competitive, regulatory and innovation challenges?

The group mainly focused around regulatory, legal and Ethical practices. This is an area that requires attention and will help improving the sector’s image.

Areas of Concern

  • Lack of understanding of ETI Base Code
  • Knowledge of regulations or lack of them
  • Cost for putting things right
  • Health & Safety / Fire Safety / Staff Welfare
  • SEDEX does not necessarily provide confirmation of a factory being Ethical compliant factory
  • Retailers/Buyers have their own audit requirement
  • This requires forensic audit for example Fast Forward
  • Relationship between retailers & suppliers/contractors/sub-contractors
  • Price-undercuts – means adoption of illegal/unethical practices
  • Contracts – “Lack of”:? Big question why they don’t exist.
  • Lack of Enforcement

Suggested Positive Measures

  • Support good businesses
  • Improvement in relationship with retailers & suppliers/contractors/sub-contractors
  • Promotion of good businesses via Social Media, Case Studies (Leicestershire Textiles Hub/Biz Gateway)
  • Development of good practices guidance, this may be something that ETI can offer?
  • Engagement of employers through workshops e.g. Management & Leadership, Employment Law,Legal compliance, e.g. new Modern Slavery Act, Health and Safety / Fire Safety/Staff Wellbeing, etc
  • Incentives for good compliant businesses e.g. additional form commitment from buyers
  • Web based case studies to promote good activity
  • Effective use of Skills centre / employment agency e.g. Job Centre Plus
  • A base level & consistency of H & S and Fire Safety

Facilitator’s Comments:

Overall it was positive discussion; however we were unable to explore innovation challenges. The group acknowledged the limitations with regards to enforcement. There would be a need to discuss this issue at the meetings of Steering Board to ensure development of effective compliance support programme.