The development of the fashion industry is vigorous, it is one of the industries that many youngsters dream to work at. However, the blooming development of the fashion industry is only focusing on the design which is mostly about children, teenagers, and adults. About elderly fashion, the fashion industry is lack of senior fashion designers. It seems like young designers do not like the market of senior fashion. But contrariwise, the senior design market is what we should be focusing more. If there is no younger generation that willing to do the senior fashion, why don't we offer a chance to the senior to let them do it themselves? To solve this problem, I would like to introduce Marks and Spencer(M&S) a plan called ‘Senior internship scheme'. As many people know, M&S’s fashion and the brand is famous among the senior, many senior customers like to shop at M&S. If will add the senior fashion into M&S’s market, I believe it will brought the company many benefits. In the following proposal, I will inform you of the benefits that the senior internship bought to the company which is the addition of sales numbers, the society and how it enhances the quality of life of the seniors by finding their value.
· About ‘Senior internship scheme'
To commence with, I would like to give you more information about the ‘Senior internship scheme' which aims at engaging the elderly to rejoin the workplace after retirement while providing some advantages to the company and society. The biggest reason for implementing the plan is the aging problem in society. It has been discovered that the total populace aged 60 years and older, will grow to 2 billion by 2050, up from 900 million in 2015. (World Health Organization,2018) The data shows that the number of retired seniors in society is increasing. Many elderly would like to work continually even they are under the legal retirement age. But the truth is the society does not offer any opportunities for the elderly or even reject their application. To implement this scheme in M&S, the senior internship may work as the assistant of the fashion designer or they can even do the design themselves. The workload should not be high and contains any fitness work for the elderly, as they should not only do the physically active, working on designing works it a good way for them to show off at their age.
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· Benefits brought to the company
To cooperate with the scheme, M&S should consider hiring the senior to do the design which helps the company to expand its business at a new area by making it a unique selling point to the company. To make a simple example, a senior designer ‘Siu Lan' has released its brand called ‘Taylor Made by Siu Lan'. The brand is welcomed by the youngsters, her collection even exhibited at the exhibition. I think senior designers can design more suitable clothes for the elderly by using their own life experience, and they might develop a new trend by adding their unique design ideas. Both elements may bring more sales and market to the company which is indisputable a benefit to the fashion company to do multifaceted development.
· Benefits brought to society
As known to all, the fashion company including M&S does not have enough senior fashion designers. Allowing the elderly to do the design is a good way to continual participate in socio-economic and give contribution. It is no exaggeration to say that the elderly are the one who knows them the best. In any situation, young people do not understand what the elderly need, as they do not experience their life and cannot catch the points on designing. Most of the designers only consider how the clothes look good on people instead of the functional of the clothing that the elderly need. For example, the fabric, color matching, tailoring, or even the position of the pocket, the size of the button, it is necessary to consider more. If the company allows the elderly to design the clothes, the design would meet the demand of the senior fashion market in a better way and solve the problem of the elderly who found difficult to buy suitable clothes.
· Benefits brought to the senior interns
Besides the advantages to the company and the society, the senior internship scheme also benefits the elderly as it can help to enhance the quality of their life. The quality of life is a broad-ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person's physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, personal beliefs and their relationship to salient features of their environment. (WHO, 1997) The scheme will mainly focus on the psychological state and social relationships by providing adequate employment opportunities and continual participation in socio-economic. Many elderly indicate that they want to work, however, due to the legal retirement age and the prejudice of the employers, it is hard for them to find a job after retirement. They think they are old and ignore by society as people never ask for their willingness, whether they want to work or not. Hiring a senior internship in the fashion company and arrange them work helps the elderly to establish their confidence and give them the right to control and make decisions in the workplace. To design good clothes for the senior market, the opinions of the senior designers are essential as only they can give real-life experiences and design the adaptive clothing for the senior. When the elderly feel they are needed, they will feel the satisfied and mental quality will increase also. On another hand, to work in the fashion industry helps the elderly to build a connection with society. They communicate with the general direction through clothes or activities like fashion shows or exhibitions.
In conclusion, the senior internship scheme helps M&S to develop in a multifaceted aspect, to expend its business in the senior fashion market. Second, senior fashion designers satisfied the general elderly to able them buying suitable clothing to live a more convenient life. Lastly, the scheme enhances the quality of life of the seniors by increasing the quality of their psychological state and widening the social relationships between the senior and the society. Senior internship scheme brings us many advantages at multiple levels, the general should give the senior a chance to work and also create a turning point to M&S and the society to a better future.
References
- World Health Organization (2018). ‘Aging and health'[online]. Available from:https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health
- CUP MEGAZINE (2019).‘Interview with Siu Lan, a senior fashion designer.'[online] Available from: https://www.cup.com.hk/2019/01/30/hongkongdigest-siulan/
- World Health Organization (2002) Active aging: a policy framework [online]. Available from: whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/who_nmh_nph_02.8.pdf
- World Health Organization (1997) WHOQOL – measuring the quality of life [online]. Available from: www.who.int/mental_health/media/68.pdf
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