Get in the picture! – “New Talent of the Year” tender

The Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency launches a tender in 2022 in a professional collaboration with Startup Campus named “Get in the Picture! – New Talent of the Year” which focuses on talent management, inspiration, and creativity development of the professionals of the future, intending to create a tradition. The programme wishes to address full-time students in vocational training interested in fashion, design, and creative professions. The tender’s theme is “Industrial Revolutions – From the Sewing Machine to Robots”; teams are invited to apply on this topic.

The HFDA develops programmes of several levels in professional collaborations based on its surveys and industry feedback, aiming to support the development of domestic vocational training in the creative industry. The Agency started to collaborate with Startup Campus in the autumn of 2019 to jointly realise a value-creating fashion and design industry ecosystem that boosts the sector. One of the milestones in the cooperation was that under the 2021 Fashion Industry Vocational Training Development Support Programme, the HFDA joined the Startup Campus’s InnoGEN Youth Programme which focuses on nurturing young talents, inspiring the next generation, and developing their creativity. The “New Fashion Industry Talent of the Year” tender was launched as part of the programme which will be announced this year covering fashion, design, and other creative professions with the title “Get in the Picture! – New Talent of the Year”.

The Fashion and Design Industry Vocational Training Development Support Programme aims to restore the industry’s professional prestige and call young people’s attention who are about to pick a career to opportunities for collaboration and careers in the creative industries. Besides Startup Campus, this year, the Budapest Complex Vocational Training Centre also took part in the national prestige-building campaign and the creation of the tender to enhance the programme professionally and as a partner as well with its many years of experience.

The “Get in the Picture! – New Talent of the Year” tender is open for applications for full-time students between the ages of 14 and 21 in creative, fashion, and design industry vocational training who want to draw attention to the beauties of the creative industry professions with their innovative creations and inspiring ideas. The programme also aims to build community since students can show their talent and creativity to a wider audience using cooperation possibilities between professions and practical knowledge. The 2022 tender’s topic is “Industrial Revolutions – From the Sewing Machine to Robots”, in which applicants can freely interpret previous industrial revolutions’ determining technologies, rethinking materials and the context of changes in their works. When creating the entries, they can use diverse materials and techniques to demonstrate their ideas and convey the topic’s atmosphere depicting the memorable motives, the world of forms, or big inventions of the known industrial revolutions from the steam engine to the metaverse and the questions of sustainability and recycling.

“Domestic and international statistics show that interest among young people has risen towards creative industry professions. The programme started with the intent of creating a tradition and aims to focus on the talent management of future professionals. In addition, it is crucial for us to teach students 21st-century skills as well as basic competencies since they are indispensable in the jobs in an industry in transition.” – said Anita Forintos-Szűcs, Deputy CEO of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency.

Students of fashion, design or creative industry areas can form teams and they can submit one joint product idea. The submitted entries will be evaluated by a professional jury, and teams will work on the ideas chosen by them in the second half of the school year. Expert mentors will aid them in this and will help in the creation of the projects and their processes through consultations using their insight and outstanding knowledge stemming from their experience gained in their profession.

At the beginning of the tender period, in the first part of the school year, the HFDA will promote the programme in a national roadshow and provide professional support in vocational schools already in partnership with the Agency. At the stops of the roadshow, in addition to exciting presentations and workshops, pupils can meet the tender’s ambassador, Bence Csalár, award-winner blogger, sustainability expert, and writer. In addition to the valuable prizes given to the first three places at the end of the evaluation of the whole tender, participating teams will all gain significant professional support and mentoring.

The Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency strives to build long-term professional contacts with Hungarian and international professional organisations and vocational training institutes. The HFDA created the Fashion and Design Industry Vocational Training Development Support Programme to restore the profession’s prestige, draw young people’s attention to the possibilities in creative industry jobs, providing new talents for the sector.

You can find more information about the “Get in the Picture! – New Talent of the Year” tender and application HERE.