Future recruitment strategies and assessment of emerging talent in Fashion-Tech

Today’s Fashion-Tech landscape is in a state of flux – fashion and tech sectors are becoming increasingly more closely aligned, digitization is key, and environmental issues are driving new processes and agendas within the industry [1] Accordingly, the Fashion-Tech industry is identifying new job profiles and interdisciplinary roles connected to sustainability, design, product innovation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, data analysis, management and governance, policy making, omnichannel and e-commerce, and asking for a variety of new skillsets to enter this dynamic and evolving space. Yet conversely, companies do not necessarily know the answers to how they will achieve smarter more sustainable product and business solutions or identify new potential revenue streams beyond the notion that such advancements will involve collaborative working practices. Rather they look to the next generation of upcoming entry-level talent to help transform and future-proof their businesses. Consequently, new challenges are posed to companies and Higher Education Institutions alike. In the case of the former, the question of how to attract and recruit the right Fashion-Tech talent with the necessary skillset and ideology to ensure ongoing innovation in the sector is crucial. While Higher Education must seek to mentor and prepare its graduates as hybrid practitioners for an increasingly digital future where the development of the right mind-set and mix of soft/er skills – being entrepreneurial, open to change, a team player etc., is prioritized alongside that of the necessary hard/er skills. The FT alliance project [2] is a 3-year (2020-2023) Erasmus+ funded academia-industries partnership with 12 consortium partners from European Universities and Fashion Tech industry is focusing the exchange/flow of knowledge and co-creation within the Fashion-Tech sector to boost students’ employability and innovation potential. For one of the work packages UAL invited HR representatives from the 12 consortium partners to explore recruitment tools based on the 50 new job roles within 8 job families that were identified in previous research [3] These job roles were re-assessed using interactive online workshops. This paper shares the findings and recommendations from these workshops and podcast whilst highlighting pedagogical implications for master’s level Fashion education.

• https://fashiontechalliance.eu/en/