Mulberry's workforce has been rejuvenated by the introduction of apprenticeships.
The longing looks of the women gazing at the Mulberry production line are what you'd expect from a bunch of kids touring a chocolate factory.
This industrial plant in the north Somerset countryside is bag nirvana for all who covet such products as the Emmy, last year's fashion must-have, seen on the arms of Kate Moss and Scarlett Johansson. Today the production team is putting together Bayswater handbags. The skivers, stitchers, pipers and inkers are nimbly transforming sheets of beautifully tanned leather into luxury goods.
But a glance around the shopfloor tells you that this workforce, which numbers 206, is not in its first flush. "The average age is 52, 53," says Ian Scott, the company's supply director. Young people don't seem as willing as their parents or grandparents to consider factory work. Scott believes it has something to do with the information they get about manufacturing careers.
Design appears a much more attractive proposition than manufacturing. "The youngsters don't realise that the big names in fashion, the vast majority of them, can make garments," says Linda Florance, chief executive of Skillfast-UK, the sector skills council for apparel, footwear and textiles. "They have been trained to make clothes from start to finish. They understand what they can do with the various properties of the materials."
Of the £80m of public funds spent each year on vocational training in the sector, £72m is blown on skills that business doesn't want, according to Florance. Barely 10% of it has any real relevance and value to employers, she says.
"This industry contributes more than £10bn to the UK economy each year and employs around 380,000 people. Yet we are unable to provide employers with the appropriate training for their staff to ensure their businesses are equipped to face the challenges of an increasingly competitive market," she says.
About 40% of subsidised courses for the industry are in fashion design, even though there are very few vacancies for designers. "There are about 3,000 fashion designers each year graduating from fashion college. Only about 300 of them are going to get jobs in fashion design." And the rest? "They go into all sorts of occupations. A lot end up in the retail sector."
The fashion design courses use up 60% of the overall training budget, says Florance. "Then we've got 30% going into what I would call 'hobby' courses - the sort of course that someone might enrol on on a part-time basis because they have an interest in dress-making. The other 10% of the budget goes on courses that are valued by the industry."