Time to Value Manual Jobs – Bring PPE Back to the UK

By Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion-Enter Ltd and Chair of the Apparel and Textile Manufacturers Federation (ATMF)

It’s time we started being honest about the shifting value of work in the UK.

For years, graduates were told a degree would lead to security, status, and prosperity. But now, with the steepest fall in graduate job opportunities since 2009, even the most prestigious employers are rethinking what…and who…they need.

• High Fliers Research recently reported a 14.6% slump in graduate hiring among top UK companies, a stark decline that hasn’t been seen since the financial crisis.
• PwC, one of the country’s biggest graduate recruiters, is slashing intake by 200 this year.
• Reed, a leading job site, has confirmed that graduate-level job postings have dropped by a staggering 66% compared to 2021/22 levels.

This isn’t just a blip – it’s a turning point.

As AI continues to reshape the landscape of knowledge-based roles, manual and vocational jobs are more relevant than ever. The irony is hard to miss: the very roles we undervalued for decades: machinists, cutters, technicians – are those that are immune to outsourcing and automation.

Nowhere was this more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the NHS faced a national PPE crisis. UK factories, ours included, stepped up. At Fashion-Enter Ltd, we produced 20,000 units a week, creating a much-needed safety net not just for health workers, but for the livelihoods of our team and community.

We did it once. We can do it again. But we need the government to back us this time.

Here’s where real change can happen…public procurement.

There is no excuse for contracts for essential items like PPE and military uniforms being awarded to overseas manufacturers, particularly given current global tensions and the UK’s fragile supply chains. Yet, a reported £24 million contract for 600,000 military uniforms was awarded to a manufacturer in China in November 2024. That money and those jobs could have transformed the UK manufacturing landscape.

With political will, the Labour Party has a clear opportunity here to tackle worklessness and revive British industry in one fell swoop. Re-shoring procurement not only strengthens national resilience but also creates long-term, sustainable employment in communities that need it most.

There’s a long-standing myth that factory work is a fallback, a plan B. I can tell you from personal experience, that’s simply not true.

I’ve held a graduate job. I climbed the ladder in retail and reached the role of Senior Buyer. But given the choice between buying and manufacturing? I’d choose the factory every single time.

Why? Because factory jobs build something tangible. They develop skills that AI can’t replicate. They foster a “can-do” spirit and team camaraderie that you simply don’t find in a corporate boardroom.

We need to shift our mindset. These are not low-skill jobs. These are high-value, skilled trades and they are the backbone of a resilient economy.

As Chair of the Apparel and Textile Manufacturers Federation (ATMF), I speak for dozens of factory owners who know what it means to be overlooked, undercut, and under-appreciated. We don’t want handouts. We want fair opportunities to contribute. Give us the contracts. Let us compete. Let us prove that British manufacturing is not just viable, it’s essential.

Now is the time to champion vocational work and to invest in people whose jobs can’t be replaced by a chatbot or a robot.