Lectra holds its first education congress

18 Jul '08

5 min read

Lectra, the world's leading provider of integrated technology solutions for the fashion industry, held its first Education Congress at the end of June dedicated to its “Privilege” partners. Deans, directors, and teachers from the world's most reputed international Fashion Schools and universities came to Bordeaux, France, for two days of very intensive seminars.

The Lectra Education Congress: a highly stimulating environment
The Education Congress had, as main objectives, to network all participants to allow them and Lectra specialists to share their experience and expertise and to build a think tank geared toward the specific needs of fashion schools and universities. This think tank focused on different ways of providing students with a solid background, preparing them for their professional futures.

“This congress was a great opportunity to demonstrate the importance we place on education,” said Véronique Zoccoletto, Chief Human Capital Officer and Education Program Director at Lectra. “But more than that, Lectra has provided a one-of-a-kind, close-knit environment for enriching exchanges among professors, deans, and directors from our partners, as well as with professionals from well-known fashion companies.”

Design and development of fashion accessories: An increasing demand for new talents
Lectra's solutions and education experts prepared a complete and dedicated program to address the concerns of fashion schools and universities which need to prepare their students for a professional environment undergoing full-scale evolution.

An entire session was dedicated to accessories that are becoming more and more important in well-known fashion brand strategy and as such must be integrated into fashion school curricula. Today, most of the schools want to offer their students the opportunity to develop particular skills in footwear, handbag and other accessories creation and development.

To better understand trends in the accessories market, Nicolas Dumontier, Project Manager for leather goods at Louis Vuitton, presented the main stakes faced by the industry. Lectra experts explained, through live demonstrations and concrete customers' examples, how Lectra's 2D and 3D dedicated solutions could help overcome these challenges in this specific market and in the entire fashion sector in general.

Mastery of technology solutions, a “must” for tomorrow's professionals
“All our students need to know Lectra's solutions so they can be prepared for their future careers. Mastering CAD/CAM technology is a “must” for our students if they want to find good jobs in the fashion industry,” precise Jun Li, Professor at Donghua University in Shanghai (China).

During one of the presentations, the Human Resources Development Manager at a leading fashion group encouraged education professionals to orient their students not only towards design but to pattern-making as well. Candidates with a mastery of pattern-making and grading as well as of the field-related technologies are in short supply, and thus very difficult to find, not only in Europe but also in the rest of the world, she said.

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