Last month's article was a plea to the Fashion Industry to employ and train our graduates. Now the industry has had a noticeable upturn we have had a lot of enquiry for younger candidates with at least two years experience. The reason clients are requesting 2 years experience is so they can employ someone who has skills covering:

• Specs
• Costings
• Pattern making - Manual and CAD
• Grading
• Computer skills

As stated in last month's article there is a shortage of these young people as the industry have not been employing graduates and training them in the above areas.
Rag Trade Recruitment have been so concerned about this dilemma, we knew there had to be a solution. We have had conversations with Pattern Architects, a private company who does extended education around the above technical skills for both companies and individuals. We have discussed the shortage of these skills in the industry and how the tertiary institutes are only teaching ‘broad stroke' skills but not in depth enough for them to be of value to an off shore production employer without further training, either externally or in-house.

Don from Pattern Architects says:
"When I started teaching in the 1980's, courses had sufficient hours allocated to a variety of practical subjects e.g. pattern making, grading, cutting room practice and production planning to mention a few. The class time allocated enabled students to practise what they had learned under the supervision of a tutor. Work scenarios would be given to the students to raise their awareness of practical situations that they may have to deal with in the work place.

 

Today, offshore production is a major part of the garment industry with many companies sending specifications to China for sample patterns and garments to be developed.

It is therefore important that graduates fully understand garment specifications and garment specification grading and have enough experience to detect any errors and rectify them.

 

It is absolutely essential that graduates understand the difference between pattern grading and garment specification grading. In order to gain such an understanding it is necessary to have practical experience of manual pattern grading.

Since starting Pattern Architects I have met with a number of people working with garment specifications and the application of grading increments, yet do not fully understand how the increment originated."

Rag Trade Recruitment and Pattern Architects have developed a postgraduate course covering the above areas. The inaugural course will be held in Jan/Feb 2010. When the candidates have completed this course they will have consolidated and extended their prior knowledge and experience in the skill areas that employers are seeking.

Rag Trade Recruitment and Pattern Architects are both very passionate in creating a solution that gives our young people a chance. We still need cooperation from the industry to employ these young people. They will have not only completed their Tertiary Education but would have further invested in themselves in order for them to be of greater value to a future employer. If you like what you read or require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the writer at Rag Trade Recruitment.