Episode 3: Developing a Multiple-year Fashion Marketing Program

0:02 Do you currently teach one fashion marketing prep over and over and over again? Do your students want more fashion that is not design-related? Would you like to have a fashion marketing program that is two, three, or maybe even four years. We'll stay tuned for an inside look at the framework of the four year fashion marketing program I taught for 14 years in a high school career development center. I'll also share ideas of how you can connect to external programs and create a robust program that will immerse the students into the business side of fashion.

0:49 You're listening to Marketing EdVenture, the hub for business, fashion, marketing, and other CTE educators who integrate marketing into the learning experience. I'm your host, Jacque' Walker. Each week, I'll cover marketing, education concepts, strategies, tips, trends, frameworks, and other information to equip you to connect your classroom to digital natives while cultivating an engaged learning environment. So come on into the room, where your favorite beverage snacks, and even your cell phone are all welcome.

1:28 So you're seriously considering adding on a fashion marketing program at your school, or extending the one that already exists. Maybe you teach several classes of gesture, fashion marketing curriculum, but you really want to develop like a one or two, three or four level fashion marketing program. It's very doable. So I will explain to you how our program was set up. I know that in a previous episode, I did talk about, you know, the different levels of our program. And if you want to set it up, you can just look at some colleges that offer fashion marketing, and speak with them and see if they will be interested in collaborating and having dual credit created for the students in your classes in your school. So that would just be an agreement between the high school or either the district and the college. So it would be worth sitting down and having a talk with the fashion program of a local college where you are. And to see if it's something that is feasible, look at their coursework, look at if they have certificates like Dallas colleges, I know that they have a visual merchandising certificate, they have a whole selling certificate, and they have several certificate programs. And that is what the high school classes were geared toward; the dual credit classes were geared toward the certificate, and then that certificate rolls into an associate's degree program. So when the kids leave high school, they are able to have a certificate under their belt and just go on into that associate's program and get their Associate's degree. And then after that, if they choose to, they can go on to a four year university and complete their bachelor's degree. So that's how many of my students did that. So definitely look at fashion programs that are out there in local colleges. Now. Maybe there's a fashion school, some places do have fashion schools that may have a program that still may be able to correlate with the high school courses. So take a look that way and set up your dual credit program or a certificate program with those other schools that may have some type of certificate licensed or degreed program.

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4:57 With my students the freshman year I was not dual credit, it was entrepreneurship. But that entrepreneurship class was partnered with a global entrepreneurship program. So the program that we partnered with was NFTE. That's Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. And NFTE is in a lot of schools that are economically disadvantaged. And they're also have gone into camp programs and different things of that nature, but they are global. And so the students, the full year would create a business plan based on a product or service that they chose, and what their business plan nifty had it all outlined, they had the curriculum and everything all outlined. And so the students were working towards completing the business plan, and competing in a business plan competition, where they could compete for seed money to put into their business, if they were so serious about their business, and wanting to grow that business. They competed for seed money regionally. And then two winners will go on to the national competition, which was generally held in New York, I think they've changed or they've moved it around a little bit over the last few years. But the students were able to compete at the national level. And we've had that opportunity really great. At that time it was in New York and I had a lot of fun. It was a great exposure for the students, they competed nationally against students from all across the United States and international kids would come in from various countries to compete in the NFTE business plan competition. There are so many entrepreneurship programs that are out there right now that you could pair your entrepreneurship class up with. They have developed curriculum competitions and all of that. So that's one thing to look at when you're looking at connecting your program to something that would allow students to do a competition, get a certification or credit for something.

7:03 My sophomores through seniors, were dual credit. So those courses were directly connected to college courses. And it was the visual merchandising certificate, I think it's called now the visual presentation specialist. Now you know how you have to change up the wording to reflect the new times and aid in all in all, it was a visual certification or certificate that they received. And they actually, when they completed those 18 hours, were actually able to walk in the graduation ceremony. So my seniors would walk in the graduation ceremony with the central graduates who were receiving their associate's degree and are getting recognized for completion of a certificate program, those are some of the things you can do. When I look into fashion. I looked at fashion programs. And so you know, to my surprise, things are really grown in in events, especially since we're doing a lot of things online, there are a lot of fashion programs out there that you can look to connect your program to your high school program to if you don't have a community college, in your area that you can do do a credit with, you can look at some of these online fashion programs that you can get your classes connected to. And then the students can be earning whatever type of credit that program offers, or sort of certificate certification that it offers. Definitely look into that and see how your state defined courses can be connected to some other program that will allow your students to have first second level third level and fourth level years with you in your program.

8:51 So like I said with the college, we just looked at the, we created a crosswalk. The crosswalk had already actually been created by the time I was there, but we did have to do some adjustments to it because Texas decided to change their TEKS, their standards. And then of course, the colleges also changed their classes as time passes and they see what is needed or what needs to be added or what have you. So look at the crosswalk. You have to revisit that periodically and see what classes can correlate. As I said in a previous episode, my fashion marketing class, which is a Texas TEKS class, correlated with the intro to fashion class from the college. My advertising Texas advertising class connected to the fashion advertising class advanced marketing class was connected to the principles class principles, a marketing class and that principles of marketing wasn't only a class for me. It was used in several other campuses in our district who were doing dual credit, like P TECH classes and things of that nature. So that advanced marketing class was correlated to the principles of marketing class for everybody, then the practicum and marketing class because it is an advanced level class where you're demonstrating more advanced skills and marketing was connected to my fashion trends. And then the extended practicum in marketing class, which is generally used a lot of schools use it for their school store. Of course, we had our school store that we operated, but the extended practicum in marketing was specifically tied to my basic color theory, and visual merchandising classes. So those are some ways that you can look at connecting your states or courses to some college courses or fashion programs.

10:52 I hope you enjoyed this brief insight into how you can expand your fashion marketing course into a full fashion marketing program by connecting with local colleges to set up dual credit that correlates the state standardized classes to the college courses. Looking into fashion programs offered online that offer certificates and incorporating a well established entrepreneurship program into your entrepreneurship class. I encourage you to talk with your district CTE specialist, school administration and counselors to discuss this enriching concepts.

11:34 Thanks for listening to Marketing EdVenture. Remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with someone you think would benefit from the information shared here today. If you have any questions, or want to connect with me, find me on Instagram at Marketing EdVenture. All links and resources discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes at Marketing EdVenture.com