Career and Technical Education – CTE – Fashion Design

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Career and Technical Education (CTE or CTAE) is now a very important piece to education in the United States. It is estimated that Career and Technical Education reaches some 94 percent of high school students and well over 12 million students beyond K12. The Career and Technical Curriculum is grouped by career clusters with the prime focus of helping students obtain technical and practical skills that can lead to high paying jobs when they graduate. Many CTE classes target specific job skills such as culinary and fashion design. The curriculum also focuses on new and emerging technology.
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I remember when I was in middle school, I had a home economics class. In that class we learned how to cook and how to sew among other things. It was a fun class. Today’s home economics class in many schools falls under family and consumer science which is a subset of the overall Career and Technical Education Curriculum. CTE is classes have evolved so much over the years as they give students hands on instruction that allows students to really get a feel for career options. A few CTE classes range from engineering, web design, auto repair, culinary, business marketing, graphic design, fashion design, fashion marketing, fashion merchandising, clothing construction and more. The goal of K12 CTE classes is not only to prepare students for employment but to also prepare them for college.
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It has been a pleasure here at Harper Arrington Publishing to work with so many schools through our fashion design software called Digital Fashion Pro. Digital Fashion Pro Academic is used in over 300 high school and post-secondary education programs. It has been a near perfect learning tool for family and consumer science (FCS) fashion classes. It has allowed students to create their own professional fashion sketches right their computers. Students love that they can design their own t-shirts, jeans, dresses, coats, shoes, handbags and more. The program helps students evolve in the world of fashion as fashion is one of the hottest industries among teens. Through use of Digital Fashion Pro Software also keeps youth engaged and focused. It is truly a remarkable education piece that is also used by beginners, fashion designers and clothing lines around the world.
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In 2014 we introduced our CTE Lesson Plan Pack for K12 fashion design classes to further aid fashion design teachers with the ability to do even more with their students in terms of creating real world fashion. The K12 CTE Lesson Plan has been a huge success as we are hearing from many of our fashion design teacher clients and school districts. I think it has been successful with students because it makes their time in the class truly exciting in many ways while also teaching them real world skills. Fashion students are learning team building and team work as they work in the lesson plan to create their own mock clothing lines. The fashion class is divided into group where each group then forms their own clothing. The K12 CTE Fashion Design Lesson Plan and Digital Fashion Pro Academic fashion design software has truly made an impact on all of our high school fashion classes that has invested in the package.
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The most frustrating part about the Career and Technology Education Program on the K12 level is administrators are always battling with the school board to adequate fund the programs despite the curriculum being widely successful with students. Many clients successfully seek out grants when the school district doesn’t have adequate funding to bring in new software such as Digital Fashion Pro. However, there are many districts that have got things right and realize the true potential of a thriving Career and Technical Education program. We hope that more school districts will get on board and support their teachers and students.
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Article by Michael Harper – Co-Founder of StaringAClothingLine.com / Harper Arrington Publishing
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To Learn more about Digital Fashion Pro – Click Here.