BBC Film Crew Visit Stitching Academy

Nick Robertson CEO of ASOS and  Minister of Employment Mark Hoban at The Stitching Academy Launch

The Factory is a 7,500 square foot premises that outputs over 7,500 units a week, also home to the Apprenticeship programme and ASOS Stitching Academy.

The Stitching Academy targets young people in hope of spreading awareness of British manufacturing and skills, while providing free training, a qualification and a helping hand into the production-side of fashion.

Due to a lack of skills and training available into the fashion sector, in 2013 Fashion Enter, with the support of ASOS, global online e-tailer, launched the Stitching Academy.

The Stitching Academy has gone from strength to strength since its launch, successfully going on to support learners into head office roles with ASOS, Marks & Spencer and Lipstick Boutique.

 

Tomorrow the BBC crew will be visiting The Factory, focusing on The Stitching Academy; looking into why the Academy was set up and how the course is helping to bring manufacturing back to Britain, meeting and interviewing the current learners on the course.

With a recent report finding that 60% of those in the manufacturing workforce are over 40 years old, there are obstacles in place that are preventing the young generation into manufacturing. Fashion Enter and ASOS, with the Stitching Academy, are keen to prove that production is still very much part of the fashion industry and that many other fashion routes feed off the processes and cycles that go into the behind the scenes of manufacturing.

The BBC will be interviewing CEO Jenny Holloway, a keen supporter of ‘Made in Britain’ to get an insight to UK manufacturing and why bringing it back is so important not only to her but also the industry.

Watch this space!

Don’t forget to tune in – the report will air on Bank Holiday Monday 26^th May 2014 on BBC News.