UCLan staff face up to mask challenge

Fashion staff at UClan are facing up their their health and safety obligations- by going into mask production.

Fashion staff at the Preston institution are using their sewing skills to help with implement the new Covid-19 safety procedures.

Staff at work making the UCLan face masks

placeholder image — Staff at work making the UCLan face masks

They’ve been busy making more than 30,000 washable face coverings in UCLan colours ready for the start of the new academic term.

Their efforts mean that all students and returning staff will be given two UCLan branded reusable masks to ensure they follow government guidelines on the Preston, Burnley and Westlakes campuses.

Some of the face coverings being made to allow a safe return to the university’s campuses - from l-r Femida Adam, face coverings project Leader; Zuleikha Chikh, UCLan Students’ Union president; Professor Graham Baldwin, UCLan Vice-Chancellor; and David Knight, senior lecturer in the School of Arts and Media.

The idea stemmed from a project earlier in the year which saw the university helping make surgical caps and gowns as well as face coverings for Blackpool Victoria Hospital at the start of lockdown.

Former student Femida Adam, who teaches part time at the university besides running her own occasion wear business, was originally asked to help.

The, when the government started advising people to wear face mask in indoor settings, Femida and her small team were asked to change production to make washable and reusable UCLan branded coverings.

Femida was joined in the mini enterprise by senior fashion lecturer David Knight, who also helped produce the medical gowns, and chief laser cutter Rick Healey from UCLan’s Learning and Information Services as well as three professional machinists and a manufacturing company in Blackburn.

With the growing demand for face coverings likely to peak in September as schools, colleges and universities return UCLan reckons that by making the face coverings in-house they could guarantee delivery for the end of August and ensure they have them ready to distribute.

The aim is to ensure all staff and students will be presented with the black and red branded coverings at the welcome events at all three campus in the next couple of weeks.