Fashion exchange program is entirely funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation

Beautiful tired woman sits in front of the sewing machine and thinking. Vintage concept.

A unique free program has been created through a partnership between the George Brown College (GBC) and the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation to train people for the fashion industry in Canada according to Helen Tewolde, manager at GBC’s community partnerships office.

“There are two components to the program—power sewing and fashion fit.” said Tewolde, “So, it basically leverages people with skills with manual dexterity and an eye for detail. Those who are interested in the retail sector learn about garment construction and development of different items for retail.”

According to Tewolde the power sewing component teaches you how to construct a garment and fashion fit helps you to learn how to fit apparel on people. The program includes 11 weeks of in-class instruction and 100 hours of placement with employers in the fashion industry.

“This a really unique endeavour,” said Fiya Khan, a young fashion entrepreneur. “I haven’t heard of it before. It is great to have some experience in this industry dominant field and more importantly—it’s free.”

For the January intake, the registrations are open and admissions are on a first-come first-served basis. In order to qualify for the training program, students need to attend a mandatory information session after which they will be contacted for an interview.

This is the third cohort since the program started in June and there are 40 spots for January 2016. The instructors for the program are from the school of fashion at George Brown.

“The industry response has been fantastic. In the last cohort we had Canada Goose and Stitch It take all of our students,” said Tewolde.