Product Innovation with Textiles offers a holistic approach, providing you with a strong grounding in textile properties, and sustainability in order to inspire and guide your textile product innovations.

During this course you will develop an in depth knowledge of textiles including textile testing, fibre chemistry and how this knowledge of textiles can play a significant role in innovation within a variety of market sectors. You will explore the reasons for innovation and how this is placed in terms of our future as consumers, product innovators and partners in business. There will be consideration given to how innovation can work in partnership with sustainable practices and use of materials. During this course you will investigate how to protect your intellectual property (IP) and how to exploit innovation through developing case scenarios for potential business sectors. You might also have the opportunity to work on live projects in a local, national and international context through identifying real world problems for partner businesses. You will gain skills in marketing, business, communications and entrepreneurship through examination of product lifecycle and through critical examination of the textile and related industries while developing skills in problem solving through design and innovative manufacturing processes. This will be suited to you if you have an interest and career goal aspirations in the technical and/or creative aspects of product innovation with textiles.

Textile industry bodies such as UKFT report there is a skills gap in the UK’s fashion and textile industries. The course is designed to endow students with a portfolio of skills that will make them highly attractive to potential employers. The structure of the course was designed following conversations with numerous textile companies and companies using textile in their products, to produce graduates with the right blend of skills to meet the industry need.