Academe untapped in ethics debate
MELBOURNE: A research project to analyse the TCF industry's engagement with ethics and sustainability has been proposed by RMIT University as part of its TCF Review submission.
According to Sue Thomas, lecturer in fashion at RMIT's City Campus - who tendered a separate set of recommendations alongside RMIT's overall submission - the survey would take the form of qualitative interviews across the two levels of mass produced and small labels. The purpose of the project would be to gain an understanding of designers', production managers' and comparable professionals' applied experience and opinions of ethics and sustainability.
Thomas said the student and academic community represented "unrealised potential" for collaboration with industry with an emphasis on quality ethical, sustainable design and supply-chain.
The RMIT University Department of Fashion (city campus) had been offering sustainability education to undergraduate fashion students since 2002, with postgraduate research dating back further, she added.
"The university is a leading research and design practice in this area, gaining a reputation for graduates and postgraduates who are versed in the sustainability and ethical debates and are graduating with skill sets to address these issues. The academic staff and postgraduate students have gained an international standing for research, scholarly publication and practical expertise in sustainable quality design.
Thomas' submission underlined the commercial imperative driving ethical and sustainable fashion.
"Without addressing ethics and sustainability throughout the supply-chain, Australian product will become less viable to the conscious consumer."
The City Campus submission was echoed by RMIT's overall submission, in which RMIT vice chancellor and president Margaret Gardner also emphasised the role played by funding in fostering sustainability.
"Links to the specialist research and knowledge infrastructure of universities represent an opportunity to leverage the resources of the industry. Targeting current structural adjustment funding to drive such collaboration is one mechanism through which this could be achieved."
Meanwhile TAFE NSW's submission highlighted skills shortages and recommended changes to enhance access to traineeships, as well as expanding the availability of traineeships to include Diploma or Advanced Diploma qualifications.
"This would address skills needs at the production management level and contribute to the re-skilling of existing workers and potentially attract young workers to the industries." Other submissions from the research and academic community included Melbourne's Deakin University and research organisation CSIRO, which focused on the future of a "non-traditional" textile industry centred on fibre innovation.
By Belinda Smart