Higher Certificate in Fashion

Purpose

After the successful completion of the qualification learners will have mastered all the necessary entry level practical skills to be able to operate effectively in any of the following vocational environments:

• Fashion design.
• Fashion manufacture.
• Wardrobe for film and television.
• Fashion trend analysis.
• Fashion marketing.
• Fashion journalism.
• Fashion styling.

The qualification will provide competent, entry-level learners for all industries that rely on fashion design/manufacturing and fashion merchandising professionals in order to meet their business outcomes.

Successful learners will also contribute to the creative and technological body of knowledge and practice in the associated field and sub-field of study.

Qualifying learners will have a clear understanding of the required declarative body of knowledge relevant to fashion design/manufacturing and/or fashion merchandising/marketing, and will also have been coached in the performative and attitudinal aspects that attach to the vocational context.

Graduates will have learned to produce a range of practical and performative expressions of competency in these areas.

The founding principles of the NQF and skills development strategy are embedded in the purpose of the qualification as it is designed to encourage competency in the Critical Cross-Field Outcomes integrated with vocational competency in the areas of fashion design/manufacture, fashion merchandising/marketing. Good citizenship, cultural and aesthetic sensitivity, the effective use of science and technology for direct vocational inputs, processes and outputs, as well as for the support of life-long learning receive attention in the qualification.

Rationale

The qualification is available to all learners who wish to develop the practical skills to operate as a fashion designer/technician or as a fashion merchandiser/marketer in any vocational environment that requires this knowledge and the associated vocational outcomes relevant to applied fashion design, manufacturing and merchandising contexts.

This qualification offers a planned and purposeful set of learning outcomes that will prepare learners for entry into any of the sub-sectors of the fashion design industry and for further learning in this learning pathway.

The qualification provides the learner with the skills and knowledge for employment and/or life-long learning.

Learners must be able to read, write and speak in the language of learning and teaching of the provider, as well as have mastered the intellectual, practical, performative, attitudinal and metacognitive skill sets consistent with the further education exit level.

Recognition of Prior Learning

Recognition of Prior Learning candidates who can demonstrate proficiency in

• The whole programme.

Or.

• Any course contained therein.

Or.

• Any part of a course (module) contained in the programme, may be granted exemption from the programme, the course, or part of the course (module), and receive recognition (credit) for same. Recognition of Prior Learning can also be used by learners who do not meet the admission requirements to gain access to the qualification.

Access to the Qualification

Admission to the Higher Certificate: Fashion is based on

• The achievement of a National Senior Certificate (certified by Umalusi, the Council for General and Further Education and Training), a qualification at NQF Level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (Government Gazette, Vol. 481, No. 27819, July 2005) including 30% minimum in the language of teaching and learning (English) or its international equivalent.

Or.

• The achievement of a National Certificate (Vocational), a qualification at NQF Level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (Government Gazette, Volume 489, No. 28677, 29 March 2006 and amended in Government Gazette, Volume 507, No. 30266, 7 September 2007) including 30% minimum in the language of teaching and learning (English) or its international equivalent.

All modules in the qualification are at NQF Level 5 and are compulsory.

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the practitioner in the trend-driven vocational context.
2. Prepare and present design ideas in storyboard form executed in freehand or electronic formats with accurate technical renderings.
3. Produce illustrative renderings of design ideas in freehand format.
4. Operate vector based software programmes for the purpose of producing electronic renderings of design ideas and technical information.
5. Produce patterns and garments for a range of purposes.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the fashion practitioner in the commercial context.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Trend variables and dynamics that impact on supply chain dynamics and product uptake are understood and explained.
• The fundamental principles that drive the commercial enterprise are described.
• Work is presented in a professional manner.
• Ideas are researched and communicated in an intelligible, structured and informative manner.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Presentation forms (two and/or three dimensional) appropriate to design ideas are identified and selected.
• Technical drawings and details are co-coordinated to achieve manufacturing objectives.
• Drawings and illustrations reflect creativity.
• Structured ideas and information are communicated through written and oral presentation.
• Storyboards contain correct technical interpretation of design for production purposes.
• Correct terminology is used in storyboards and oral presentations.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Forms are presented with accurate and/or stylised illustrative techniques.
• Illustration techniques demonstrate creativity.
• Illustration portfolios present structured ideas through clear developmental/observational phases towards final stylized renderings, and include print-making and texturing skills.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Graphic-based software is operated in the execution of design related tasks.
• Images are manipulated and re-presented in electronic formats.
• The fundamentals of interface between operating systems and software applications for design related applications are described.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 5

• Pattern design and garment production display sufficient thought and judgement.
• Aesthetic principles are applied in pattern design and garment production.
• All specifications to achieve fit and style are incorporated in master patterns.
• All technical considerations are integrated in pattern and garment technology.
• Production technology, equipment and processes, appropriate to the type of garment, are identified, selected and used.
• Fiber, yarn and fabric properties are related to properties, application, end use and functions of garments.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 6

• An understanding of market variables and dynamics that impact on supply chain dynamics and product uptake is demonstrated.
• The fundamental principles that drive the commercial enterprise are described.

Integrated Assessment

The learning programme lends itself well to highly integrated assessment of the Contextual and the Design and Technology cluster of courses, since the design, technical and contextual courses are heavily reliant upon one another for the development and delivery of the final, integrated assessment task - the final show garment.

Integrated Assessment is therefore ordinary practice in this qualification and is essential to ensure that the purpose of the qualification is achieved in terms of its knowledge, vocational relevance, reflexive competency and critical cross-field learning outcomes.