FACULTY FOCUS
campusreview.com.au
Not a good look
As fashion careers become must-haves, the
sector says a new report citing poor career
prospects is in need of a makeover.
By James Wells
A
report has identified students’ lack
of access to apprenticeships as a
bottleneck in Australia’s fashion
industry, but one leading educator says the
figures “have to be taken with a grain of salt”.
IBISWorld’s Fashion Backward: Career
progression increasingly difficult for fashion
students argues more school leavers are
pursuing domestic and international fashion
careers, and graduates are flooding the
market. IBISWorld cited two main reasons
for this: fashion’s widening social media
platform that markets glitz and glamour,
and the boom in vocational education
programs targeting the industry – especially
in Victoria.
Since the state’s move to a
demand-driven system in 2009, the
number of private VET providers has
surged. The National Tertiary Education
Union reported private VET’s market share
in the state rose from 10 per cent when the
24
system was implemented to 40 per cent
in 2012. In fashion VET programs, public
and private combined, Victorian students
account for 47 per cent of enrolments,
IBISWorld reported. New South Wales
students account for 16 per cent.
After completing a course, the next
step for these students is often an
apprenticeship. However, far more of these
are in NSW than in Victoria – 52 per cent
compared with just 8 per cent.
Claire Beale, Design Institute of Australia
Victorian Tasmanian branch president and
RMIT textiles lecturer, cautioned that care
should be taken when examining this data, as
not all fashion students go through VET. She
also pointed out that not all fashion students
use the apprenticeship job path, and that the
data fails to take into account students who
create their own jobs straight out of study.
“Most fashion businesses in Australia
are [micro-, small- or medium-sized
enterprises],” Beale explains. “That’s different
to the rest of the world. In other parts of
the world, the shift is more predominantly
large-scale manufacturing and big labels. In
Australia, it’s the reverse. We’re more around
small design and practices. The mass market
is an unusual percentage but it’s the one that
gets the most attention from the media.”
IBISWorld’s analysis focused on
clothing manufacturing. It pointed out
this sector is following the general trend
towards offshore processing in Australia’s
manufacturing. Beale agrees and
argues fashion education must foster an
intellectual economy for the industry.
“Australians are noted for being
ingenious and innovative, and we need to
provide opportunities for that to happen,”
Beale says. “Particularly for the design
community, we are very much thinking
beyond traditional boundaries, and beyond
traditional disciplines. We’re starting to think
about how design can work with end users
in a far more integrated manner.”
Australian Fashion Chamber general
manager Courtney Miller commented,
“Not everyone who goes through [fashion
education] gets a job as a designer … like
not all lawyers get jobs as High Court
judges.” She says it’s important students
manage expectations. However, there are
plenty of positions available in nuts-andbolts roles, Miller assured.
“There [are many] different places they
could go, so in terms of oversupply, yes,
if they’re only looking at the narrow road
of becoming a designer, it is hard. But it’s
also changing, because there are many
strong designers coming out of Australia at
the moment,” she says. “I would say their
prospects are looking better than they
were, say, 10 years ago.”
Meanwhile, although Bea