Iona joined Fashion-Enter Ltd, Wales in 2020 to start her Level 2 Sewing Machinist Apprenticeship. This was a new venture for Fashion-Enter Ltd (FEL) and the Fashion Technology Academy, working closely with Newtown College. Little did FEL know that this new collaboration was going to be the start of a wonderful new partnership.
Over the preceding two-years Iona excelled in her apprenticeship. Being aided by experienced supervisors, Iris and Judith, Iona mastered every single stitching machine, under took cutting operations, pressing operations, and also worked well in the quality control area.
Ana Cover, Senior Stitching Tutor from Islington, also regularly visited Wales to support Iona and the team. Ana is a tutor as well as a qualified assessor.
Regrettably the work at the Price Jones building in Powys started to slow with the impact of Covid, but FEL continued to work with Iona to support her with her apprenticeship.
“Iona’s resulting portfolio is beautiful,” commented Jenny Holloway, lead IQA (Internal Quality Assurance) for the Fashion Technology Academy. Lan Leader, also, IQA, commented that: “The quality of the work is really outstanding. There is clear embedded skills in all of the units, and we are very proud that Iona excelled at her apprenticeship.”
This is further confirmed by a very strong EQA from expert, Jan Wise from the Skills Education Group, who commented at the end of the report…‘All the sewn products are about the requirement for Level 2. They were all very well presented and clearly annotated. Centre workbooks are well developed whilst being able to be assessed in a variety of ways: ie: discussion/observation/practical work/written answers.’
Today, Fashion-Enter Ltd and the NCPT Group of Colleges are working on a new 800,000 pound bid to open a state-of-the-art Fashion Technology Academy in the Pryce Jones building. This once was the factory of Fashion-Enter Ltd, and this unique collaboration will create amazing opportunities for digital and technical fashion skills for the whole of Wales.