Creativity will save us all

The topic we discussed after Katie's talk at Pentland Brands centred around the question 'Is it better to have a few skills or a lot of skills?

From a company's point of view, they would prefer to hire someone with a few skills. But the question I have is whether someone with many skills is really good and flexible at using the skills they have. Sometimes you may have a lot of skills but you need to be 'moderate'. I think it is more important to learn and practice in a way that you can improve your skills by choosing an area that interests you.

If you reach a level that no one else can reach this will make you irreplaceable in the industry. Although before you do that you have to try a lot of things to figure out what you really need and what is best for you and what you really like about your job.

I have thought long and hard about this, trying to sort out and create a career plan for my own future. I started my five year long study of clothing at university because of the language, and due to the new coronavirus I delayed my studies and chose to resume my postgraduate studies the year after I graduated. But studying at Nottingham Trent over the past six months has helped me to find out what I really want. Before coming to the UK I had no idea what sustainability really meant to people and the fashion industry. Through my research and experimentation over the past few months, I realised how interesting sustainable development can be, creating fabrics from materials that come from nature (I tried bio-fabrics and plant dyed fabrics).

I believe that if I have this skill and push it to the limit, I could become a technician in fabric experimentation or a designer with sustainability as my main line of research in the future. Each workshop has helped me to stop being anxious and confused and to gain a new conviction to keep guiding me forward.