This week I was at the Houses of Parliament for a meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Group for textiles and fashion to discuss the issue of the lack of skilled garment machinists in the UK.

The meeting was organised by Tamara Cincik of Fashion Roundtable, who is the secretariat for the group. 

There were several UK garment manufacturers in the room, along with representatives from the British Retail Consortium and The UK in a Changing Europe - an independent research body that gives advice on all of the possible outcomes with Brexit.

The reason that we were all there was to ask the Government with help to ease the issue of the lack of skilled garment workers in the UK, and to impress upon them WHY this is important

The UK textile industry is worth over £9bn to the economy currently - but it could double if supply could keep up with demand. The only thing holding it back is the lack of staff.

If you care about the lack of skills in UK garment manufacturing, there are a couple of things that you can do:

1. Write to your local MP and state you case as to why you think garment machinists and textile workers should be put on the shortage occupation list.
2. Complete the APPG survey if you are a manufacturer, or pass it on to any manufacturers that you know, who employ garment machinists.

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