IAG simply means Information, Advice and Guidance to our learners but actually it’s a huge area!
We want to guarantee that every single person that comes to the Fashion Technology Academy for our accredited or non accredited courses has the right course – we want to change your lives for the better. Education can lead to a fulfilling career and providing you are on the right course and at the right level the world of different careers can be opened for you. We are here to support you as you make your decision regarding what course to do, where that course is going to lead to next and what your future career options are.
We will be offering the best impartial advice that we can give and we will be referring you to other centres and support organisations too – the doors are open wide for you to learn all you can from us in a positive enivornment that is fit for you and your career steps.
So what is IAG the Fashion Enter way?
We start off with an open day – we call this pre-entry IAG whereby you may have an idea about our courses and your future career aspirations but you are not really sure. No question is too small, too trival or too large for our talented team of teachers, technicans and support staff. Normally an open day is held every six weeks and we invite people from all backgrounds and experiences to marvel at the world of technical skills. Our website www.fcfta.com has all the qualifications on display and explains outcomes and steps for where next but there is no thing like seeing the real thing! We have three lots of production types here – a factory for bulk production of 500 units to 10,000, Fashion Studio for one sample or up to 50 units and then the Couturier service which is for more specialist garments such as Finery and M&S silk blouses. This production run is 50 – 499 units.
During the Pre-entry open day we will guide you around our services so you can understand how the courses integrate into how industry works. We will show you the garment life cycle and how the units are supported during the life of a garment. It’s great fun to see how an idea becomes a garment and a garment becomes an order.
Once the Pre- IAG takes place we then have one to one conversations to ensure you fully understand the processes and types of qualifictions that we offer. If you want to proceed with us then we are here to help however if you want to go into a different direction we can still help you with our IAG What’s Next file showing you all the different career and FE options that we can support you with.
If you are happy to stay with us then off we go to the Initial IAG. This is now a time where we will look at skill, your previous history and qualifications, your career aspirations. We will test you to review your maths and english skills but this is not in a pressurised enviornment. We just need to know where your skill level is so we can support you all we can. We will review the courses that you are interested in, any job descriptions that you have found on www.FashionCapital.co.uk and we are there to just provide impartial sound advice, information and guidance that is there to help you. If you want to enrol then we can complete the paperwork but there is absolutely no pressure and if you want to go away and think about it we actually encourage that. These are important decisions in your life. We want these to be the right decisions for you.
Once you have become part of the FTA we still want to monitor and make sure we are doing the best job we can. We will under take a Mid IAG and this is when we look back at your initial IAG and ensure that we are still on the right track for you. If we can we will provide you with Master Classes and outside enrichment activities to ensure that your career path is the right one. We have even been able to send some students and learners to asos to review exactly if the job career prospects are right. We will always have action plans and ideas too for you – we want you to develop but not pressurse you. We want the learner to be in a strong motivated place.
The final part of IAG is the exit IAG where we will review again your initial aims, your mid IAG objectives and ensure that the course has lived up to expectations and then the exciting part. What’s next! If you are an apprentice there is a strong possibility that you will be offered a job. 96% of all of our apprentices are retained upon completion of their level 3 and 4. However if the head count for the retailers is not quite right fear not. We have many many contacts in the industry thanks to our live factory environment and the contacts that we have with the FashionCapital Meetups and Trunk Shows.
We are also going to keep in touch with you after you have gone too…you can’t get rid of us that easily! We shall contact you within 3 months and 6 months and if we can help you at all please just let us know – we have found additional contacts for some of previous apprentices especially when the time is right for creating your own brand. That’s also why we have created the FashionCapital.co.uk memberships
Here’s what Sannita had to say:
‘I wouldn’t be where I am today without doing my apprenticeship. I started off my career in buying, the year and a half apprenticeship scheme helped me gain direct experience in the industry as well as learning about other aspects of my job through my once a week teaching at the fashion enter offices. I left the apprenticeship with a full time job the following day and am now a Junior Buyer at Zalando in Berlin.
Apprenticeships in my belief is one of the best ways to approach your career if university is not for you. I am pleased that Fashion Enter can continue offering this opportunity for other people like me.’