UKFT is working closely with the Greater London Authority (GLA) to develop a fashion & textiles (F&T) strand to their Creative Jobcentre Pilot. Building on a pilot already undertaken with the film industry, the aim is to create awareness of careers, jobs and progression routes to improve career outcomes, training and increase diversity in the fashion and textiles industry in London, through developing new recruitment pathways.

The first phase of this pilot is to use the findings and evaluation of the film industry approach to undertake research of the fashion and textiles industry employers and develop the proposal for a fashion and textile programme in London, which will have two strands:

• The Job Centre Programme: activities for jobseekers entering the fashion and textile industry, primarily working with Job Centres to promote roles, training and jobseekers into these roles
• The Accessibility Programme: will develop a range of activities to remove obstacles and provide support to Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals to break down the barriers to entering the fashion and textile industry.

The research will:

1. Identify London-based fashion and textile companies, their skills needs, their capacity to be involved in the programme and their location, in order to maximise the potential success of the programme through successful job outcomes
2. Identify key training providers, their provision and their locations to map provision to demand and meet company needs
3. Develop proposals for a two-strand approach in the programme
4. Job Centre Plus: including identification Job Centres with the capacity and best location to run the programme
5. Develop the proposal for removing obstacles and provide support for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals to enter the fashion and textile industry
6. Provide recommendations to ensure that the approach is scalable and transferable to other sub-sectors, and enable its dissemination