In our country people often have misconception that as the course is “fashion designing” so there must be no difference in the grades of fashion designing colleges like technology colleges. This is a wrong notion. In reality a top tier fashion college possess many such qualities that cannot be inherited in any local or small scale college.
There are various quality check measures that can help one in deciding the best school as per their expectations. These are:
Accreditation: The College of fashion designing must be accredited from a known body. In India we have AICTE as an autonomous body that provides accreditation to the colleges for their quality measures. If the college is not having a worthy accreditation then there are chances that the degree will not be recognised by various big brand houses and it will put the whole career of the student at a stake.
Courses other than CAD should also be emphasized: If you go through various articles about fashion designing courses, they all lay emphasis on learning skills such as CAD and other illustration based software. But there are various other subjects that are less talked about though they play a major role in shaping the career and personality of the individual at the end of the course. The courses such as business communication, soft skills etc shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Learning of fashion merchandising: A fashion designing college must understand the need of teaching fashion merchandising to its students. Though the colleges emphasize on the learning of the art of creating new sketches, designs and illustrations but what will be the use of these talents unless one is able to place them in the right hands in the market. There is a dire need of understanding the market place, its participants and the way of dealing with them. Thus there should be a focused approach for teaching fashion merchandising to the students.
Practical classes: Never miss to enquire that what amount of focus is levied on the practical classes and how many sessions are allotted for them in the curriculum. Also plan to pay a personal visit to the college campus and check whether the college of fashion designing is acquainted with sufficient number of instruments and machines to teach its students. Personally ask the lab coordinator and ex-students that how do they find the practical learning in the college. After all mastering of any art comes with a lot of hard work and practice.
Placements: Though most of the students plan to start up their own venture at the end of the fashion designing course, but it is advisable to take the support of college in the initial stages of career and work under some renowned and established fashion designer or design house. This way the student gets an opportunity to learn a lot from the functioning of the employer’s institute/studio and has a scope of doing mistakes and correcting them. In one’s own business set up, every mistake costs not only money but also reputation and the trust of the clients.
Considering these factors should be an important step before finalizing any fashion designing college. These factors are like a scrutinizing for the better future of any individual
