Evaluation of the HND fashion programme of Accra Technical University

Abstract

The fashion sector plays a vital role in driving economic growth globally, yet Ghana's fashion industry encounters hurdles such as heavy reliance on imports and low local skill levels. Recognizing the sector's significance, Ghana has implemented policies and educational reforms, including competency-based training (CBT) in fashion education. However, the effectiveness of such programs, particularly at Accra Technical University (ATU), remains underexplored. This study evaluated the CBT option of the Higher National Diploma (HMD) fashion program at ATU, focusing on its ability to meet student expectations, factors affecting graduate performance, student competencies, program relevance, and challenges of graduates of the programme in the job market. Grounded in pragmatism, the study adopts a mixed-approach; convergent parallel thus combining quantitative and qualitative methods and elicited data from 107 past students and 153 present students of the programme using questionnaires and interviews. The study's data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. The study among others revealed that the programme is very relevant to the students who had assessed it and that it fulfilled their expectations of attaining competencies and skills. It also revealed that many of the graduates could create new designs to meet clients' expectations. The study concludes that the programme is very relevant to the graduates as it provides them with the skills and competencies needed to perform and can produce designs to match-up with contemporary fashion demands and trends. The study therefore recommends that the programme should be continued to provide many fashion designer With skills and competencies. It also recommends that the interest of the graduates be whipped up to sustain them for acquiring more skills and competencies. The school authorities, government and other relevant agencies must do their bid to always keep the programme very relevant and impactful.