Developing new-generation fashion VET training through Sustainability Actions

The purpose of our project has been to fill in the gap in vocational education for meaningful and effective training, by addressing an area rarely covered by educational initiatives: sustainable t...

The purpose of our project has been to fill in the gap in vocational education for meaningful and effective training, by addressing an area rarely covered by educational initiatives: sustainable textile innovations. To achieve this, we aimed at: generating fashion strategies that are adapted to contemporary and prospective requirements of vocational education and informal learning paths developing a concrete toolkit with actionable educational instruments such as report cards, material libraries and other helpful resources for VET orgsations, textile designers, entrepreneurs, employees, and trainers setting up a mentoring programme addressing contemporary learning needs in terms of sustainable textile innovations that supports learners to develop durable business activities. establishing a network of VET entities to discuss best practices for sustainable fashion These specific objectives led to the formulation of two key areas in our project. The first one looked at the exploration and mapping of best practices around sustainable textile innovations and resulting in an educational toolkit. The second one looked at effective programs for building skills in an independent and holistic manner, such as mentoring initiatives.

The partners joined forces around the common goal of creating innovative, state-of-the art vocational education regarding textile sustainability. The need to tackle this challenge using complementary expertise and through a cross-country lens was obvious from the start: only by pulling together different experiences, partners could come up with a holistic educational solution that adapts globally without losing its local effectiveness. As such, the main need was to first come up with workable and innovative solutions to vocational education and informal learning content and formats, surrounding the topic of sustainable textile innovations. This remains a grey area in most of the EU, with small exceptions of North Europe where research is going hand-in-hand with education. Then, the aim was to create sleek tools that can be easily used by vocational education orgnisations as well as independent learners to update their skills in terms of textile sustainability. Thirdly, to address the need for more cohesive and tailored programs of education that are self-paced but can provide personal support to learners. Lastly, to update vocational institutions’ activities by helping them to adopt identified best practices in their activity.

Sustainique Toolkit; Sustainique mentorship - programme structure; Sustainique educational materials ; Product prototypes; Mentorship business plans; Sustainique report card methodology; Sustainique integrated platform; Sustainique smart labels; Sustainique interview series; Satisfaction survey - mentoring programme