Billionaire To Build Own Fashion College

[stylegurrl]

Billionaire who just couldn't get the staff builds his own retail and fashion college

By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent
24 September 2004


Philip Green, the retail billionaire, is planning to build the country's first fashion and retail academy in an attempt to "produce the next generation of entrepreneurs".

The owner of Bhs, Top Shop and Miss Selfridge has donated £5m to what would be the first specialist college to train 16- to 19-year-olds for a career in fashion retail.

The college will train 200 school-leavers a year in marketing, finance and fashion buying and Mr Green - who recently tried to buy Marks & Spencer - hopes it will open for business in September 2005.

Mr Green, who left school at 16, said he had been driven to invest in the scheme by his difficulties in recruiting good staff for his own business. "We need to do something to produce the next generation of entrepreneurs," he said. Mr Green said it was often difficult to tell the difference between graduates and those who had left school with only A-levels.

"If you ask a lot of these people why they went to university they don't really know. It's either because they think it's what you are supposed to do or because it gives them another three years before they have to go out to work.

"If you get underneath it all some of it really defies logic. We take on A-level people and graduates who are three years older but are only earning £500 more. That's quite scary given that it probably costs them £30,000 or £40,000 to get there."

Mr Green believes that the project could cost up to £10m. He said that he was prepared to pay up to half of the cost himself but was in talks with the Department for Education and Skills about attracting further funding for the venture both from the Government and other retailers.

The unique college, to be built in London, will feature a full-size store inside the campus to enable its students to gain real experience of laying out their own shops.

Mr Green is also pressing the Government's exam watchdog, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, to develop an A-level-standard specialist qualification in fashion retail to be offered at the retail academy.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills described the plans as "an exciting new concept" and the relationship with Mr Green as "a unique partnership".

The retail industry is Britain's second largest employer with a total of 1.9 million employees. Mr Green's Arcadia Group, which includes the Top Shop, Miss Selfridge and Burton brands, employs 40,000 people in its 2,300 stores with nearly two thirds of its staff aged under 25.

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

I was hoping you meant with bricks and mortar.

 

[aubers]

That's the most insulting thing i've ever heard. As a student I think that there's a great deal of value from higher education and it's far from an excuse for doss about for three years of your life.
My university (london college of fashion) produces at least 200 fashion marketing/management/promotion graduates a year. Not to mention the students that complete a 2 year foundation degree course. If Phillip Green cannot get the staff it is because he will not pay for talent. I think that training school leavers so that you can get a cheaper work force is only so he can maximise his profits, and it wouldnt suprise me at all if they were tied into a contract to work for arcadia for peanuts for a great deal of time after they complete. The whole thing infact reminds me of the army where if you go to sandhurst you have to work for 3 years in the army for £22,000 a year.
sorry, maybe i've taken it a bit to heart - knowing fashion management students and also school leavers working in reatil, i know a bit about the enourmous divide there is not only in education but in work ethic, personal manner, life skils and intelligence. I'm not saying all school leavers are not worthy of top jobs in life, but not all degree students sleep all day and party all night.

 

[Lena]

he's looking to creating cheaper job status and targeted educational skills for his own business, thats all.

Not a bad management idea but somehow a bit un-ethical for my taste.
On another level, he will create opportunities for less talented/or not rich-enough kids to enter the fashion industy bussines, this may actually be a good thing, giving opportunity where none exists.

The dangerous point might be that coming out of this new school one will be 'destined' to the work ethic, of just the big 'cheaper' labels, making the graduate unable to 'upgrade' to aquire possitions in the rest of the market. Mass marketing attitude is just a portion of todays fashion environment, mr Green seems he's having a problem with creative educated graduates, he obviously feels like he doesnt know too much when it comes to creative-ly educated environment, he obviously feels 'put down' , he just left school to make business.

Working as a consultant to fashion 'industrialists' and big companies, i have great pains in communicating the importance of good taste and sociological developements in their uber commercialised 'product'
They just want orders, items, volume, no matter what and how, and this often results to their own commercial death.. due to uber-simplifying their tagret.
Artistic developement, originality and quality are also shaping the success of the 'dinosaur' mass market labels, much more here and now. Unfortunately, they dont seem to get the message, it's their problem and it will only get worst when they will start interacting with strictly 'industial' educated staff.
They need the freshness and the developement of creatively educated people in their business, they only profit by hiring 'these people ' who actually know why they choosed for a higher fashion education..

hope you are lurking somewhere out there dear fashion industrialists, stop being so square, it may seriously harm your developement

 

[SignorinaFab]

Does this college exist yet? If so, a webpage would be helpful ...

 

[Erin]

I was hoping you meant with bricks and mortar.

I know, that's what I thought it would have been, initially...