Decade-long trends that saw fashion companies abandon training programmes, as well as the shift to fast-paced, digitally driven work environments, have all contributed to a skills gap in the industry.

“A skills gap is when your current capabilities, experience, skills [...] are outpaced by the needs of the job. Skills gaps happen over time, [and] they are impacted by external factors like the pandemic, technological changes and also the internal needs of a company. If a company moves direction, maybe the skills that you currently have no longer fit your role,” said Sheena Butler-Young, senior correspondent in the BoF Live on 7 March with BoF Careers’ Sophie Soar.

Some of these gaps are the results of systematic issues. The CFDA x PVH’s 2021 report on the State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Fashion states that some 38 percent of Black survey respondents reported they were “not at all equipped” for their first job search versus 19 percent of white employees. What’s more, it found that 68 percent of Black employees reported greater inaccessibility to the fashion industry versus 37 percent of white employees.

To fill these gaps, fashion professionals across all seniority levels must consistently stay abreast with the latest industry and workplace trends, step outside their own functions to gain big picture insight and reach out to supervisors and mentors for support.

To pinpoint and develop the skills conducive to gaining more responsibility at work, it may be helpful to think about your career path as a career portfolio: “Sometimes it is about moving sideways, moving diagonally, maybe even moving into a different industry altogether or coming into fashion as the next step in your career and see it from a holistic perspective rather than just being linear and vertical,” said Soar.

Now, BoF condenses key insights from the BoF Live event about the skills gap in fashion and how to secure a role today.

Identify Your Personal Skill Gaps

Mitigating existing educational or vocational gaps requires you to be aware of your current positioning in the job market. “The first step is to do a self-evaluation — know what your core skills are, what you are good at,” said Butler-Young. “Then figure out what your objective is, the job you are going after. Find on LinkedIn the person that has that kind of job and look at their job description or their skills or responsibilities, and [compare them to your own].”

Once you identified these gaps, make them your areas of focus by developing a strategy to learn and upskill, taking into account your free time and available resources. These may include university or alumni networks, free or limited education programmes as well as in-company training and mentorship schemes.

“Be intentional about where you want to go, constantly evaluate the skills that you have and figure out if there are deficits [and try] to fill them. [...] There is not a lot of room in fashion to rest on your laurels,” added Butler-Young.

Re-Evaluate Available Resources

Formal education can offer many benefits, like expert teaching, exposure to industry leaders, and access to powerful alumni networks. Nevertheless, if for any reason you are unable to attend higher education, taking initiative will unlock a myriad of ways for you to gain experience and even qualifications.

“If you are looking for an entry [or] mid-level job, you probably cannot afford to pay $5,000 for a course,” said Butler-Young. Still “there is a lot that you can do on your own. [...] A lot of it is taking ownership of where you want to go, what the skills are and finding innovative ways.”

For example, some skill gaps can be addressed and mitigated on the job, with help from your employer. “A lot of things a company is going to teach you,” said Butler-Young. “You have to have a certain amount of experience, but there is a lot that you will learn along the way.”

Otherwise, there are free or minimal-cost learning opportunities which are widely available. “Follow trade magazines. When I started off in print journalism, I realised that digital was going to be a thing, [so] I subscribe to Digiday [because] I wanted to figure out where I need to get stronger,” said Butler-Young. “Practical stuff like using your social media, going to LinkedIn, taking a training course if you can afford one, going to industry or trade events, networking, lectures, all of that.”

Hone Your Value Proposition

Whether a virtual interview or navigating a hybrid work environment, fashion talent today has to learn to showcase their professional prowess with far less time spent with their managers and supervisors in-person.

Understanding “how does my employer assess my strengths [when working remotely] is a question on both sides,” said Butler-Young, emphasising employers must “ensure equity and find ways to measure important things in a virtual environment.” Still, it is up to talent to find ways to show skills they know to be important and learn to demonstrate them in a virtual environment, she added.

When seeking mentorship — or mentoring — opportunities, both junior and senior professionals need to consider their value proposition, or what it is the other stands to gain from forming such a relationship with them.

“Make sure that when someone is helping you or mentoring you, there is something in it for them, just like there is something in it for you. […] It has got to be more than you wanting the job.”

Branch Out

Fashion professionals across all seniority levels must be informed on many areas outside their traditional realms of expertise in order to excel at their job. “A lot of the skills that are needed now are interdisciplinary. [...] The reason we are seeing these [skill] deficits is that colleges are just catching up to the idea that we might need some interdisciplinary departments that help people. It is not just, ‘Ok, I am in design and we will show you a little bit of tech.’ Those things may need to have equal weight,” said Butler-Young.

Specific areas that cut through various disciplines are the supply chain, sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion among idiosyncratic examples in organisations. “It is very important that you are watching those things and trying to see around the corner how they are going to impact you,” said Butler-Young.

“The supply chain is a very practical one that if you are at a mid-level now at fashion retail, you are finding that it is not a back office function anymore — it is starting to touch other parts of the business. So if you are in marketing, for instance, and your supply chain is [not] great, you are going to be dealing with marketing blowback because people are not getting their stuff on time. So a lot of these back office functions are becoming more consumer-facing.”

“Being comfortable with data is important in any role.[...] Brands like Nike want to be data-driven, they are competing with Apple for their talent at the top levels.”

A useful way to demonstrate your cross-functional competence is to mention specific, quantifiable achievements in your resumé. “Rather than saying something like, ‘I ran this social media account’, you can say something like, ‘I ran this social media account and I increased its follower count by X percentage and impressions by Y percentage,’” added Soar. “And by doing that, you are demonstrating that you are aware of how to embed [data] into your work practice as well.”

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