Across Europe, vocational education and training (VET) providers are facing a familiar challenge: the fashion sector is moving fast toward greener, more digitally-enabled practices, but the training resources to prepare educators for that shift are still catching up.
DesignSmart, an Erasmus+ project bringing together seven partners from Spain, Italy, and Greece, is working to close that gap.
At the heart of the project is a new AI & Sustainable Fashion Curriculum – a resource designed to equip VET educators with practical, classroom-ready content on eco-design, circular economy principles, AI-assisted materials innovation, and ethical business models. Rather than treating sustainability and AI as separate add-ons, the curriculum weaves them together, reflecting how the fashion sector is actually changing on the ground.
The curriculum is built around six modules, each grounded in real case studies from across the consortium’s countries. One of them, on sustainable business strategies and regulatory readiness, draws on Ecoalf – the Madrid-based sustainable fashion brand – to walk learners through how European frameworks like the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the Digital Product Passport, the Green Claims Directive, and the EU AI Act translate into day-to-day business decisions.
This work doesn’t stay on paper. Pilot sessions are already underway with VET educators in partner countries, testing the modules in practice before they’re rolled out more widely — and helping the consortium refine the material based on what actually works in the classroom.
The ambition behind all of this is straightforward: reach VET providers, trainers, SMEs (particularly women-led ones), and policymakers with tools that make the transition to sustainable, circular fashion practical rather than theoretical — and do it at a scale that reaches thousands of people across Europe’s fashion and leather sectors.
