A Good News Story and Another Policy Win for Fashion Roundtable

The UK's return to the Erasmus+ Programme is a signal of reason returning to Westminster & a win for fashion.

This decision this week by the UK government to return to the Erasmus+ Programme is a massive win for Fashion Roundtable and likeminded allies who have been advocating for this since the UK left the EU.

From 2026/8 once again 100,00 Britons can apply to participate in the scheme which allows UK nationals to study or train in Europe.

It’s a return to the freedom of movement with our closest global partners in terms of education; internships, early doors working opportunities and is a massive win for young people and creative talent.

The EU ambassador to the UK, Pedro Serrano, hailed the scheme’s “long European tradition of learning, openness and exchange” and its support for “young people’s participation in democratic life” in an op ed for the Mirror.

This was a core recommendation in our Sector Vision report we published in advance of the July 2024 General Election. Meanwhile, as a Commissioner for the UK Trade and Business Commission, I sit alongside cross-party parliamentarians and trade leaders, and have been part of their work advocating for the reintroduction of Erasmus+ since their report was published in 2023. At Fashion Roundtable, when the UK rejoined Horizon Europe, reopening opportunities for pan-European funding and collaborative research, at Fashion Roundtable we consistently called for the the UK to rejoin Erasmus+ as this opens up the opportunity for cultural exchange. This is vital for early doors creatives, keen to work and learn in the EU, still our closest and the largest trading bloc. Anyone who has worked as a creative knows how hard it is, so access to multiple markets opens up both more income, as well as more chances to pay tax BACK INTO THE UK.

Many fashion graduates repeatedly relay to me that by not having either Erasmus+ or a youth mobility scheme, they are losing out on internships or graduate roles at European fashion houses, vital to build their careers, reputations - we all know reputation is everything in fashion - and of course, incomes.

The next steps now would be a return to the youth mobility scheme between UK and EU residents, much like the UK currently enjoys with Australia. I attended the launch at Best for Britain Towers of the UK Trade and Business Commission’s report advocating precisely for this just last week, alongside former MP John McNally and Chair of the Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion APPG, who now sits on the Fashion Roundtable Board. I adore John. He had the largest majority ever for his party, the SNP, and is a former hairdresser. A more down to earth politician you are never more likely to meet.

We also remain committed of course freedom of movement for fashion alongside other creatives, for which we have been advocating alongside leading musicians including Sir Elton John who want a return to touring without the rigmarole of paperwork and carnets. That translates as the oft-repeated Brexit era sentence “freedom of movement for goods and services.”

As I once said to a room of civil servants while we were in the depths of the Brexit negotiations - quite literally in this instance as were in a dark basement room in Whitehall - anyone who has done carnets, never wants to do them again. Or as I put it more succinctly, “they’re a nightmare.” None of the civil servants of course had ever done a carnet. Nor indeed had most of the other policy leads. I of course have. Paperwork is not our friend, creative freedom is, and I sincerely hope that the return of the Erasmus+ Programme is a step in that direction.