We asked some questions to Hannah Stacey, teacher at Birmingham Metropolitan College about the importance of Fashion Business and Retail qualifications and why they enjoy delivering them. Find out more in the Q&A below.
What do you enjoy about delivering UAL Fashion Business and Retail qualifications?
I enjoy teaching this qualification due to its broad nature, it allows the students to develop an interest that they perhaps didn’t know they had or hadn't explored, or even knew existed. Students can investigate a variety of fashion-based roles without confining them to a particular avenue.
UAL Awarding Body qualifications are flexible, in what ways does this benefit students?
It benefits the students by giving them an opportunity to build interests in a variety of fashion outcomes. The course structure enables the teacher to be flexible in their delivery, making the units within the specification work around their teaching. Units can be re-ordered so that the qualification’s content can reflect what is happening within industry, which in turn ensures the course is aware of any current developments.
As a teacher of UAL’s Fashion Business and Retail qualifications, what sets them apart from other similar qualifications?
The flexibility of the course allows the students to explore, develop and specify which areas they wish to evolve. As a Level 3 qualification, it is extremely focused on vocation and is highly regarded by universities that specialise in this area. The nature of the criteria within the specification equips the students with WoW (world of work) experiences that can be used as a stepping-stone into both higher education and work.
The UAL Fashion Business and Retail qualifications train students to have a diverse skillset. How do they support students to figure out what pathway they want to take after studying?
FBR allows such flexibility in its delivery of the qualification, teachers are able to tailor their project briefs, so they truly reflect current practice. As a result of this, student outcomes are maturely executed and are recognised in both higher education and work-based environments. The results the students achieved over the years has built our reputation and has enabled us to develop relationships with top universities, resulting in many of our students obtaining places that perhaps they would not have had the opportunity of gaining had they followed more traditional routes.
What type of careers do students studying this qualification go on to have?
Students following this pathway go on to work in a variety of fashion platforms such as fashion communication, journalism, marketing, buying and merchandising, fashion influencing and many more. Many of our students have secured university placements at universities such as London College of Fashion, Central Saint Martins, Nottingham Trent, Westminster, the list goes on, some of whom have gained work placements for brands such as Burberry, H&M and COS.