Jessica Turnbull aged 23, graduated from The Glasgow school of Art in 2021 in Textile Design specialising in Knit. Since then, she has been working at Bill Baber Knitwear as a Production Assistant for the family run business located in Edinburgh, Scotland. The UKFT Young Textile Technician Fund supported her in being able to complete her Stoll M1 Plus software training courses over the last 6 months.

Jessica gained full knowledge of how to operate the knitting machines, understand the software interface and is now able to programme fully fashioned garments. Jessica is now confident in programming her own knitwear software and operating the Stoll machinery effectively.

Jessica Turnbull said: “I completed the training online through video audio so it meant that I could use the machinery here at Bill Baber to test out my programming and then make improvements to my knit designs. This made it easier to understand the lessons as I could visualise both the technical program view with the physical knitted sample.

The course is provided by one of the industry’s most important machine manufacturers ‘Stoll Germany’ and offers me the ability to port my skills into many other knitwear businesses or roles across the world. I think this will be hugely valuable in my development at Bill Baber Knitwear and in my ongoing career. I am really happy to have completed the Stoll training courses and I am looking forward to this helping me achieve more challenging knitted results in this company and my future career.”

Jack Baber son of Bill Baber said: “Being able to send members of our team for full time training at Stoll Germany is a huge commitment of time and resources, even the online course is a significant investment – but hugely worthwhile in establishing the core programming skills needed for employees to take the next steps in their development. The assistance from UKFT makes if feasible for us to build on our own internal training programme with specialist input from the industry leaders. Jess benefitted hugely from the 4 weeks training away from the studio where she could focus on the course without distractions! We look forward to applying her new-found skills and confidence here in the studio.”

Jessica continued: “I don’t think it would have been possible without the funding and support of UKFT to complete this training at such an early stage in my career.”

Jessica has even been able to develop her own knitwear brand https://jessicaturnbull.co.uk/ applying her new skills and knowledge to push her passion for textiles and design. See more of her work via the website link or Instagram

The Young Textile Technician Fund will cover 50% of the costs of in-depth training for young textile technicians, thanks to the generous support of The Worshipful Company of Weavers, The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers and The Worshipful Company of Drapers.

The Young Textile Technician Fund is now open to businesses applying to train textile technicians under the age of 35. To find out more, email paula.mcilwraith@ukft.org

Want to learn more about the Young Textile Technician Fund? Click on the link below:

Young Textile Technician Fund