The Future of Fashion Education in Africa
1. Relevant Resources
For a while there have been many platforms dedicated to providing information on the African fashion industry. However, recently there has been a significant surge of more accessible resources on the history of African fashion and the contemporary African fashion industry. There are social media pages such as the @africanstylearchive on Instagram, which documents African fashion history; platforms such as fashionandrace.org which provides reports, essays and books dedicated to decolonising fashion education, and notable books such as New African Fashion and The African Lookbook, to name a few.
2. Accessibility to Mobile Data
The use of smartphones and mobile data is growing rapidly as accessibility to the internet is much easier. This accessibility has made things less of a challenge to gain access to information as people are using Social Media as a tool to learn. Social media provides learners with the opportunity to participate in open education, IG lives, webinars, Q&A sessions and through reels and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses).
3. Mobile Learning on the Rise
Mobile learning also known as M-learning on the continent has been a round for some time now. However it is become increasingly popular and people are becoming more innovative. Now there has been a shift more and more people are using WhatsApp as a classroom. This innovative way of teaching is extraordinary for people, it must be taken into consideration that Wi-Fi connectivity isn't always consistent. The use of teaching via WhatsApp has proven to save data as it offers people the opportunity to download content.
4. Designers Educating Future Designers
As a way of preparing the next generation of fashion designers, established designers now are using social media, particularly Instagram and YouTube, to share fundamental knowledge and opportunities within the fashion industry to set them up for their career prospects. Pages on Instagram such as Seed Ambition and Orange Mentorship provide various tips on the business side of fashion. At the same time, there are other designers on Youtube, such as Kim Dave, who teaches designers the technicalities of fashion design.
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