Enhancing Undergraduate Learning and Employability by Adopting Professional Practice from the Creative Industries

This research outlines our vision of, and experiences with, creating a multidisciplinary community of digitally-connected learners. A transformational strategy was adopted to create a collaborative community mimicking industry practice. This module redesign adopted a conceptual Product Lifecycle Management system (see fig 1) as a framework to test and support theory and practice in the fashion and textile industry.
This study considered 80 intermediate level students from 3 vocational fashion and textiles courses jointly undertaking a cross-discipline module.
The project aims were:
• To establish multi-disciplinary, collaborative learning spaces that mimic professional practice and demonstrates the interconnectivity within global sourcing networks thereby providing an immersive, learning experience to challenge students to acquire knowledge and skills and use digital technologies appropriately.
• To stimulate a dynamic connection with the global industry and its resources at the macro level through active participation in the creation and sharing of knowledge within a ‘global sourcing’ community at a micro level
• To embed an understanding of the diversity of graduate employment opportunities that enables students to shape their own ‘graduate identity’ (Holmes, 2001) and lay claim to it through reflection and articulation of their skills with examples from business practice.