There are about ten thousand textile and fashion enterprises of various sizes and scales located in Ningbo and its surrounding area, which broadly speaking, keep close links with textile and fashion colleges in the area. However, only few have established international partnerships. The fact is that majority of them have strong needs to collaborate with overseas partners but lack effective channels.
In the UK, fashion and textile universities and colleges have a long-standing tradition of keeping close connections with related industries. Their collaborations range from industrial consultancy, professional training, and short courses to collaborative research projects. Some higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK have rich experience in working with overseas partners. The UK fashion industry benefits in this way from such connections to enhance their research and to nurture their talents, in order to meet market needs and improve their capacity in market development.
The British Council has had extensive discussions with Zhejiang Textile and Fashion College, located in Ningbo. Both parties agree that collaboration is driven by creativity. They also agree that support from government and industry, with institutional links as the relationship broker, is the key to success.
The output expected is to establish institutional links with engaging enterprises under the support of government. We plan to conduct institutional links by trans-national collaboration projects, curriculum development, student mobility, competitions on new product development, and faculty exchange and training.
We expect that HEIs from both countries will initiate collaborative projects and invite industry to join in. For example, in a curriculum development oriented project, the enterprise’s product or brand is taken as a case to be studied or researched. Staff from the enterprise can be invited as guest lecturers in the HEIs. Meanwhile the enterprise provides placement opportunities for the students or awards for winners if there is a competition element in the project. This not only enables the institutions to develop their curriculum, but also allows both HEIs and the industry to jointly nurture the talents who can meet market needs.
We expect to introduce related professional qualifications which are accredited worldwide, to establish design training centres to conduct technology training and brand development activities, and to demonstrate new products, exchange new technology and present their achievements at fashion fairs in both countries
In March 2011, the Cultural and Education Section of British Embassy organised a delegation of the representatives from 12 UK textile and fashion HEIs to visit Ningbo to conduct a mapping exercise. The programme included a seminar, face-to-face meetings, a visit to a local textile and fashion HEIs and companies. During this visit, the Sino-UK Cooperation Centre for Textile and Fashion Production, Teaching and Research was jointly unveiled by the representatives of the Cultural and Education Section of British Embassy and the Ningbo Municipal Government. Through the visit both sides gained a basic understanding of each other, which laid a foundation for their further discussions.
Towards the end of May and early June 2011, 16 representatives of Ningbo government, textile and fashion HEIs and industry paid a reciprocal visit to the UK to conduct further discussions with the UK HEIs and companies in the textile and fashion design sector. The visit saw both sides firm up their collaborative ideas.
From 20 to 23 October 2011, twelve HEIs from the UK were invited to attend the 15th Ningbo International Fashion Festival with a joint static exhibition and a catwalk show convened. The HEIs representatives were also given the chance to talk with local fashion industry in order to deepen their understanding and facilitate further collaboration.
After October 2011, the Sino-UK Cooperation Centre for Textile and Fashion Production, Teaching and Research will organise visits, training and exchange activities on a regular basis in order to achieve the set goals.
