H&M launches STEM programme to drive ‘sustainability and style’

The fashion retailer has created its first STEM initiative with a theme of “sustainability and style”, in which participants will be able to explore STEM’s influence to a sustainable fashion future.

Those partaking in this scheme will attend a panel and networking event, hackathon, and receive one-to-one mentoring from STEM role models coming from fields including artificial intelligence, customer-centric technology and product development.

H&M said that the programme was a part of its bid to be “both inclusive and diverse”, addressing the issue of under-representation of women and non-binary people in STEM.

The partnership with Stemettes in the UK will be followed by the roll-out of further STEM initiatives across the world by H&M Group.

H&M UK & IE country HR manager Kirsty Finn-Murphy said: “Our ambition within H&M is to promote equity, diversity and inclusion for all our colleagues and customers. This is the reason we’re excited to collaborate with Stemettes – an award-winning social enterprise working to inspire and support young women and non-binary people in science, technology, engineering and maths careers. We believe our H&M role models collaborating with these young talents will inspire them to choose a career within STEM.”

H&M head of sustainability Pascal Brun added: “This is about the future and how we bring tech, science and data into the core of what we do. I think through this program, we could position ourselves and attract future talent which will be a core competence in future.”