British Fashion Council launches new Fashion Studio Apprenticeship

The British Fashion Council unveiled on Monday its new programme for young people who are aiming for a career within a creative field.

The Fashion Studio Apprenticeship will help to give young people the knowledge and training required to make it in various fields of the fashion industry, without having to enrol in traditional routes of higher education.

The programme was unveiled during a visit to Prendergast Vale School in Lewisham by BFC Ambassadorial President David Beckham, BFC Ambassador for Positive Fashion Adwoa Aboah and BFC CEO Caroline Rush.

Also at the event were BFC NewGen designers including Richard Quinn, Rosh Mahtani (Alighieri) and Paolina Russo.

David Beckham joined students at Prendergast Vale School in Lewisham (Tim Whitby)

The new apprenticeship, first announced in February of this year, is part of the BFC Education Pillar, which gives young people a clear understanding of how to train for a wide variety of industry roles within the creative industries.

Adwoa Aboah has been a hugely vocal in her support of the new initiative (Tim Whitby)

It will give apprentices the chance to experience a range of areas within a creative environment; from starting in the studio as an assistant to then graduating onto a more focussed area of business. The 18 month-long programme will then culminate in an assessment, including both written and practical based elements.

“Fashion is an industry that should be open to everyone – no matter what their background is or where they are from,” Beckham commented.

BFC CEO Caroline Rush said: “There are a lot of roles out there that need to be filled by skilled workers; the fashion industry is highly dependent on those roles and we hope that this will strengthen our industry and make it more accessible by being able to offer this exciting new Fashion Studio Apprenticeship.”