Fashion

The skills you acquire as an undergraduate doing a fashion degree will vary according to the nature of your course. Design degrees encourage you to develop and produce your own concepts. The ultimate aim is to produce collections of work and often to focus on one or two types of design, such as menswear or streetwear.

Over the course of your degree you develop a wide mix of subject-specific and technical skills, you should consider these skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile.

Prospects

A 2010 HESA survey of 2009 graduates indicates that six months after graduation, just over 67% of fashion graduates went into employment. Of these, around 28% entered careers in art, design and culture, while 30% found jobs as retail, catering and waiting staff. A further 7% were employed in marketing, sales and advertising and almost 8% secured work as commercial, industrial and public sector managers.

A few fashion design graduates begin as design assistants or assistant designers, helping experienced professionals. Others set up their own businesses, although this may not generate immediate profits. All roles in fashion are highly competitive and recent graduates specialising in this area might start by doing a range of jobs: designers may sell their products on market stalls, write some articles for fashion websites, try their hand at styling and take commissions for one-off items. Alternatively, they may take administrative or retail jobs in the trade as a stopgap.

It is slightly easier to find permanent work on the business side of fashion, although buying and merchandising traineeships are usually hotly contested.

Those with fashion-related degrees may also apply for mainstream graduate jobs and training.

Where are the jobs?

Typical employers of fashion design and business graduates are established studios and larger retail outlets. Recruiters may attend graduate shows at universities and snap up the most talented designers there. The biggest retail chains run graduate trainee schemes for buyers and merchandisers.

Employers often fill junior posts for all types of fashion jobs by contacting tutors and careers services in institutions with relevant courses. Recruitment may also be done through niche agencies and by advertising in the trade or national press.

Freelance work is usually available only to established designers, stylists and media experts but, with the right background, there are good opportunities for this type of employment.

Beyond this, it is up to individual graduates to market themselves by networking and making speculative approaches.

For an insight into employment areas investigate:

• Fashion and design, which gives an overview of how the fashion industry operates, socio economic factors which impact on it, career areas and what the future is likely to hold.
• Retail, which provides a picture of how the retail industry works - from warehouse to shopfloor - and career options in managerial and public facing roles, as well as behind the scenes. It also considers the impact of the internet and changing shopping habits

Jobs directly related to your degree

• Fashion designer
• Textile designer
• Costume designer
• Retail buyer
• Retail merchandiser
• Retail manager

Jobs where your degree would be useful

• Fashion illustrator
• Fashion stylist
• Magazine journalist/Newspaper journalist
• Public relations officer

Although some of the jobs listed here might not be first jobs for many graduates, they are among the many realistic possibilities with your degree, provided you can demonstrate you have the attributes employers are looking for. Bear in mind that it's not just your degree discipline that determines your options. Remember that many graduate vacancies don't specify particular degree disciplines, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

You can find more about the skills you develop during your course, the jobs listed above, plus case studies and where to find these jobs at Prospects.

Included with the permission of AGCAS. For the latest version of this publication, see www.prospects.ac.uk. For permission to reproduce, contact copyright@agcas.org.uk