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UKFT's Young Textile Technician Fund

UKFT’s Young Textile Technician Fund is designed to allow businesses across the UK to train their young textile technicians. The fund will cover 50% of the costs of in-depth training for young textile technicians, thanks to the generous support of The Worshipful Company of Weavers, The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers and The Worshipful Company of Drapers.

Training is typically carried out by machinery builders, often at overseas training schools, and is extremely specialised. As companies invest in new textile technology, the requirement for highly-skilled textile technicians has never been more important but this type of in-depth training can be prohibitively expensive. UKFT’s fund allows businesses to extend their capabilities, increase flexibility and develop new skills at textile companies within the UK.

The fund is now open to businesses applying to train textile technicians under the age of 35.

“Training young people is essential to ensure the future of our industry and access to this type of training is a critical way of ensuring that the UK textile sector remains competitive against global competition. It is great news that employers across the UK can now access funding to train textile technicians to allow the industry to capitalise on all the opportunities that exist for further growth.

“UKFT is deeply grateful to Weavers’, Clothworkers and Drapers’ Companies for their support in up-skilling the textile technicians of the future.”

Companies interested in accessing funding should contact Katie.robinson@ukft.org

Colin Spencer Halsey, executive director of The Natural Fibre Company – a recipient of the fund, said:

“Just to let you know we have received the grant for the UKFT Young Textile Technician Fund towards our technical dye training. Firstly, thank you for your excellent support during this process. Secondly, my compliments to UKFT for delivering such a valuable grant for textile businesses, particularly small enterprises. The whole process was easy to navigate and the terms of reference enabled us to achieve a step change in our business.”

 

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Travel Bursary Fund: ITMA 2023

A group of talented young textile technicians from across the UK recently had the opportunity to discover new technologies and industry innovations at ITMA 2023 in Milan, with the support of the UKFT Travel Bursary Fund.

Educating the future generation of the UK textile and fashion skilled workforce has never been as important. Technological advances and automation, advanced material development and processes, fibre and fabric innovation alongside sustainable practices in manufacturing and transparency across the global supply chain, will be the core foundations of the fashion and textile industry for the future.

This fund builds on the success of UKFT’s Young Textile Technician Fund, which covers 50% of the costs of in-depth training for young textile technicians, thanks to the generous support of The Worshipful Company of Weavers, The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers and The Worshipful Company of Drapers.

As part of the scheme, travel grants were available to visit the next edition of the international textile machinery show ITMA in Milan in 2023. ITMA has been at the heart of the industry since 1951 and is the world’s only exhibition to cover textile machinery used in the entire supply chain. ITMA 2023 focused on advance materials and automation, a digital future, innovation technologies, sustainability and the move towards a greener planet and a more circular economy.

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