Rationale:

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution and the need to provide adequate qualifications to satisfy market demand, this product-based occupational qualification is designed to respond to the need of the fourth industrial revolution in the fashion industry by designing courses for the youth, who are constantly looking for quick results. It will keep them engaged from day one in the process of designing and manufacturing the products while transferring them critical product-based knowledge and digital skills linked to the fourth industrial revolution on the factory floor. The current dominant system is manual-based teaching and techniques. This process has proven to be slow, uncompetitive, and perceived as hard labour to the youth due to very little or lack of emphasis on CAD/CAM education and its application, while this course will address the latter.
 
The CAD/CAM technology and machinery are now at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution in the fashion design and manufacturing industry. The cost of technology has significantly dropped over the years, making it accessible to poor and middle-income countries. The factory floor design landscape has changed and is being dominated by semi-automation and we will soon see artificial intelligence linked to robotics. This course is rooted in CAD/CAM technology, which is the foundation for future applications on the factory floor. This application is linked to pattern making and grading, automated sewing, cutting, spreading and other future applications that can be linked to AI on the factory floor. The use of automation will create consistency on the quality of products, high productivity, and competitiveness.   
 
Fashion education takes too long to be effectively practical and profitable for the students. The current generation’s psychological makeup is such that they desire quick results and sudden glorification. This course will give them the desired result through a product while addressing the need to resolve the unemployment issue plaguing the country. This course also ensures that the students are provided with specialized product-based skills in a shorter period so that they can empower themselves as entrepreneurs or in the workplace. It ensures that they are adequately equipped with the knowledge and skills to develop products that they can immediately take to market from the time they complete their course with the use of CAD/CAM software and have sufficient exposure to a state-of-the-art factory floor and machinery that is necessary for their specialty. This will include receiving further knowledge to scale their products for public consumption. Most traditional learning which usually spans 3 years without a specialty, produces a graduate who is at a disadvantage because they took a lot of time learning a variety of subjects without honing their skills to produce a specific garment, which they can sell once they have left the lecture room. This qualification was created on the basis that anyone who can master a particular skill to the core, can easily extrapolate the skill to another product to make them a fully-fledged fashion designer.
 
The qualification is designed to produce learners who can work in the fashion industry in positions that relate to product development, digital pattern making, garment construction, production management and entrepreneurship.
 
This qualification looks to address the lack of specialised product-based skills within the fashion industry, it also looks to normalise the use of CAD/CAM technology and machinery within the industry for students to keep up with technological changes within the industry. The qualification seeks to address the following areas:

1. Emphasis on the Product Development process with the use of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) technology and software for technical drawings, pattern making and grading. Fabric and trim identification, application and care and parts of different types of bottomwear. Specification sheets, pre-production management and labelling.
2. Exposure to the factory through cutting sheets, spreading, laying, and cutting, bottomwear making, trim and notions application and exposure to manual and semi-automated machinery, product production management and packaging.

This qualification will focus on the product development process, overgarment fabrication, trims and notions, care, and maintenance of bottomwear, digital pattern making and grading, pre-production management, the making of bottomwear and finishing techniques.
 
The qualification will include other important skills such as the following:

• Fit and sizing of bottomwear.
• Garment construction order.
• Quality control
• Finishing techniques
• Trend analysis.
• Product production line design.
• Entrepreneurial skills with a focus on setting up a small/medium bottomwear-making business.
• Garment costing and basic accounting.
• Marketing and branding skills.
• Range compilation.
• Appropriate pressing and storing of bottomwear.

This qualification provides learners who have left high school or learners who have already studied a fashion-related qualification, the prospect of receiving sufficient specialised knowledge and skills in bottomwear making, with the formal recognition for the skills and knowledge they have acquired. It creates the opportunity for learners to improve their employability or gives them the tools needed to begin their own business once the course is complete with a specialty in bottomwear making. It also presents the opportunity for the learner who has worked within the fashion industry without a formal qualification, as recognition for their skills, knowledge and competency acquired in the workplace.
 
WHO QUALIFIES TO ENROLL IN THIS COURSE:
It is assumed that learners are competent in the following:

• Matric or equivalent qualification
• Mathematical Literacy at NQF Level 4
• English NQF Level 4 (as a medium of instruction)
• Garde 10 with Work experience of a minimum of three years as an assistant pattern maker, assistant grader, bespoke designer, or fashion assistant.
• An admission assessment is compulsory for all FIAL courses.

Most Important

Duration: 
In-person learning: 4-6 hours every day excep weekend 
Course starting date :
Application fee 
Fee : 

 In the event that management determines a course to be financially unviable, Fial reserves the right to suspend or cancel it with short notice.