Maximum Licensing’s Sarah Fletcher on why our sector can benefit from working with students.
The Fashion Business School offers unique, accredited fashion business undergraduate, postgraduate and integrated masters courses, is an accredited member of Chartered Management Institute and runs industry events, networking opportunities and an annual summit. FBS was shortlisted for The Times Higher Education Business School of The Year 2017 awards.
Since graduating from the London College of Fashion, I have regularly attended the University events and been invited to speak on industry panels. I have always admired the way the University is so linked to industry. Most of the lecturers have had successful careers in fashion and stay connected with retail. I have always been a big supporter of this way of teaching and running my own business has given me the flexibility to dedicate time to educate and hopefully encourage students to reach their goals.
The lectures I teach cover the subject areas of licensing and retail. Licensing is rarely included as part of any University syllabus yet it is such a powerful, lucrative and interesting industry. I am passionate about what I do and find it deeply rewarding to teach the next generation about the world retail and licensing. It is an industry that touches many businesses, yet there is a clear lack of understanding on what licensing actually is and certainly how it links to retail.
There is also limited literature on the subject matter and what is available rather dull, so I felt it was important to share my knowledge and experience to educate the students on the importance of licensing and how it may cross their paths but also highlight how fun, fast paced and exciting a job can be. Most people ‘fall into’ licensing, but I hope to inspire students to actively think about a career in the industry.
In addition to lectures, students from fashion business courses are able to collaborate with industry partners on projects during their studies. Industry projects create a partnership between companies and London College of Fashion students which offer brand solutions at the same time as providing students with valuable live industry experience.
In February, we started a fashion consultancy project where I was assigned a brand – L K Bennett – and six groups to mentor. The aim of the project is for the students to work on launching a UK brand into the Australian market and produce a business report for the brand on the best way to approach it. The findings and recommendations will be presented back to the retailers partaking in the project as well as myself in June.
I have already been amazed by the ideas generated by the students during lectures, which in turn has made me think differently about my work, so I have high expectations for this project.
Our industry is a mix of highly creative and commercial individuals and the students studying at the Fashion Business School have an interest and talent in both. Many of the students aim to achieve a Diploma in Professional Studies. It would be wonderful if the licensing industry would support this by offering work experience placements.
In the long-term, the industry could benefit from working with well educated and passionate students who could continue as permanent employees once graduated. Many of us will remember a great manager or mentor and I would ask members of the licensing industry to support what I am trying to achieve by investing in the next generation of licensing leaders.
Sarah Fletcher runs retail-led brand licensing consultancy, Maximum Licensing. She has a raft of experience within the licensing industry, having held key roles at Mind Candy and Fluid World. She can be contacted by clicking here.
