ISAWITFIRST Commits To Fashion – Enter’s CRF Program in Leicester

In 2019 ISAWITFIRST was the first fashion company to commit to working with Fashion-Enter Ltd (FEL) and Leicester Council on the FC Fashion Technology Academy (Leicester) to support the fashion and textiles industry in the area. The brand provided £150,000 of grant funding to enable the educational facility to open and is currently delighted to see the progress made with qualification attainment to date for stitching skills. 

Now, in January 2022, ISAWITFIRST is happy to confirm that they are engaging further with Leicester, FEL and the government with the Community Renewal Fund program to provide a cross section of their factories and workers with the opportunity to gain a Level 1 Award in Worker Rights and Exploitation. 

As a long-standing supporter of Leicester and the test and repeat model, ISAWITFIRST remains committed to working closely with their factories to ensure all workers know their labour rights and can recognise when exploitation is occurring. 

Greg Pateras, CEO, ISAWITFIRST commented: “This education initiative provided by the government allows us to further capitalise on the investment we have already made in our factories and the workforce allowing us to keep reinforcing the importance of ethics to help underpin a more sustainable future for the industry. We shall be working closely with FEL on further initiatives which will demonstrate the importance of audits and compliance. Thank-you to Leicester City council for this opportunity.”  

Jenny Holloway, CEO, FEL, further commented: “True ethical production can really only occur when all parties involved, retailers, factory managers and workers, work as one to have open and transparent working conditions. We are so pleased to be working with Jackie Lewis and her ethical sourcing production team and we aim to start the roll out of the qualification at the end January.” 

Find out more about the CRF Program for Leicester’s manufacturing sector here.