Kangan institute's Textile and Fashion Hub wins the 2012 Victorian Industry Collaboration award.

The State Government's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development ( DEECD) held its annual Victorian Training Awards on Friday.

Kangan Institute and Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) Textile and Fashion Hub collaboration won the Industry Collaboration Award on the night, to the delight of the industry. TFIA and Kangan Institute have worked closely together for a number of years on various programs for the textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) sector. Our relationship has only strengthened through the Textile and Fashion Hub project.

The Australian Government - AusIndustry also contributed to this project through donation of key equipment. The Textile and Fashion Hub is an innovative concept that focuses on providing training to the sector within a centralised hub where industry participants can undertake research and design (R&D), develop sample runs of products and access the technology to prototype their design prior to taking it to market.

The concept originated in 2009, with management from the TFIA and Kangan Institute having discussions about formal flexible workplace training models for the TCF industry. This eventually led to conversations about ideal models for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) which make up 86% of the industry and how to adequately meet their needs. Kangan Institute CEO Ray Griffiths was extremely proud of the result.

"This is a great achievement and speaks volumes of our talented team," he said. "Our industry partners and 241 participating SMEs should be proud of what we've built together, projecting the industry ever further to success." Already utilising the facility are groups such as the Industry Association Consortium (IAC), the Fashion and Textile Provider Network (FTPN) and Sustainable Enterprise Network (SEN) put together by the International Fibre Centre (IFC).

The Textile and Fashion Hub project has led to the creation of a collaborative working model. This will be reviewed annually to improve our performance in providing industry with the skills and knowledge they require.

The judging panel at the DEECD were extremely impressed with our submission, presentation and the collaborative hard-work involved in getting this project up and running.

Kangan Institute is proud to be part of such a successful collaboration with our industry partner and look forward to the ongoing teamwork and cooperation that will benefit the education sector and industry as a whole.

For more information, please call corporate communications on 03 9094 3062/ 03 9094 3318.