Barnet social enterprise offers repair workshops for employees

Social enterprise Kundakala is launching a series of 75-minute repair workshops across London, with centres in Barnet among those offering the service. The sessions aim to equip employees with basic clothing mending skills, addressing a perceived lack of knowledge that leads to unnecessary spending and textile waste.

Skills gap and financial impact

Read Next in Barnet Press3 min read

Barnet man finds community tackling male loneliness

Miren Shah, 29, joined Shoulder to Shoulder after relationship breakdown left him isolated.

Research conducted by Kundakala among 1,000 adults found that 73% of British workers spent money on clothing replacements that could have been repaired. This amounted to an average outlay of £109 per person. Poornima Kirloskar-Saini, founder and chief executive of Kundakala, stated that individuals are experiencing both financial pressure and environmental guilt when discarding repairable garments. She noted that the necessary skills and opportunities to learn these are often absent.

Kundakala's findings suggest that many workers admit to not possessing the skills to fix damaged clothing, with some expressing embarrassment about their inability to perform simple tasks like sewing on a button. The organisation believes that offering free workplace workshops would see significant uptake from employees, particularly as household budgets are strained by the cost of living.

Workshop structure and cost

Related Borough Coverage3 min read

Britain in the 1930s book shows unseen Northaw hunt photos in Barnet

The 616‑page Atlantic volume, released on 5 November, contains over 600 black‑and‑white images selected by historian Steven Brindle, including a rare picture of the Enfield hunt at Northaw Village.

Each 75-minute, hands-on workshop is designed to teach up to ten employees fundamental garment fixes. These include sewing on buttons, darning holes, and patching tears. The sessions are led by members of the Kundakala Collective, who are graduates of the enterprise's training programmes and have established their own small sewing businesses. Employers have the option to host these workshops within their offices or shared workspaces for a fee of £550 per group.

Kundakala highlights the UK's growing textile waste problem, with individuals discarding an average of 35 unwanted clothing items annually. The enterprise suggests that employers are well-positioned to help bridge the gap in basic repair skills by offering practical benefits that encourage sustainable habits.