Our holistic approach allows us to accompany our students in a journey of professional self-discovery through a carefully crafted teaching and learning strategy.

OUR APPROACH

IFA Paris’ pedagogy is based on a holistic approach. We accompany our students in a journey of personal and professional self-discovery through a carefully crafted teaching and learning strategy. With more than 50 nationalities representing our student population, our teams are constantly evaluating any potential emotional distress that could be generated by a cultural shock. Therefore, we implement Social and Emotional Learning, as well as Trauma Informed Teaching, to ensure that any potential issues can be addressed.

We do not limit ourselves to deliver knowledge benchmarked against standardized outcomes. On the contrary, we leverage on our flexible organizational structure to ensure we stimulate students’ creativity and critical thinking skills by confronting them with unconventional projects. The past decades have taught us that the most important quality to have, not only as a future professional but also as an individual, is the capacity to handle risk and uncertainty. Therefore, within all our academic programs, and whether our students are in their junior or senior year, we challenge them with professional case studies that make them deconstruct the norms in order to develop innovative solutions to the fashion industry’s most pressing issues.

PROGRESSIVE LEARNING CURVE

Our academic programs are built around core modules. They represent the building blocks allowing students to validate industry specific competencies (ex: Pattern Making, Draping, Accounting…etc). Each core module is arranged according to pre-requisites to develop a logical progression in competences and skills acquisition. Core modules are also arranged with co-requisites. More specifically, assignments are programmed across transversal components to favour the utilization of a variety of transferrable skills.

In addition, with face to face teaching hours, our programs integrate self-directed learning activities, built on the concept of flipped classroom, to encourage our students to develop autonomy and responsibility in their learning experience.

PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTUALISATION

Much too frequently, being enrolled in an academic institution equates to a disconnect with reality. Hence why most graduates are often going through a period of shock when they exit the lofty environment of their schools to go work for companies. This disconnect is the reason why we integrate in all our academic programs, regardless of their levels, projects, competitions and internships. They play a fundamental role in the promotion of students learning and motivation.

Projects are always done in tandem with our industry partners. Our students are given a professional brief with the client being involved in all stages of the project. Students must deal with teamwork and dynamics to ensure they meet the requirements of the client’s intermediary and final delivery presentations. Students are given the opportunity to learn from peer-interaction, external stakeholders’ evaluation and have the potential for earning esteem beyond the confines of the academy.

Competitions stimulate professional, commercial and industrial interests, press exposure, leading to greater understanding of the fashion industry while giving students the ability to test their work against that of scholars elsewhere.

Internships are directly built within the academic calendar of each program. Students have the opportunity to work during Paris Fashion Weeks in the backstage of the most famous fashion houses and/or in their showrooms. In addition to these short-term opportunities, all our students are asked to secure internships varying between 3 to 9 months in length in order to validate their credits.

Our students who choose to complete internships abroad are supported by administration in providing them with adapted internship contracts. It is important to note that certain countries do not allow foreign students to have the status of interns. In such cases, our academic team will replace the internship report with a report based on the analysis of a chosen fashion industry segment to ensure that all students will be able to acquire the necessary amount of ECTS.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Core competencies and skills are not enough to ensure that our graduates can ultimately become the industry leaders of tomorrow. Our academic teams have devised special seminars and workshops to broaden our students’ intellectual perspective. We cover themes such as gender fluidity, modest fashion, cultural sensitivity and inclusivity, people migration or even disability and fashion. Through these thought-provoking practical modules, our students develop an understanding of themselves, and their industry, that is not defined by restrictive and stereotypical frameworks.

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Students are required to keep Personal and Professional Development notes, notebooks and e-portfolios in order to gauge and identify their own skills, to help them refine their interests and critically reflect on their progress. They are given the opportunity to rehearse and test out scenarios for future employment and enterprise and develop final collection look-books, specification sheets, CVs and e-portfolios to demonstrate their skills to prospective employers.

In addition to the traditional view on Personal and professional Development Techniques, IFA Paris provides students with sessions of personal coaching as well as an introduction to the concept of mindfulness. The main objective is to allow IFA Paris’ graduates to complete a theoretical “auto-portrait” that will ultimately allow them to project themselves efficiently into their future.

Our students are also encouraged to acquire micro-credentials through enrolment in additional modules that are not part of a set academic program. This concept allows them to acquire skills outside of their chosen academic specialization and to broaden their professional competencies.

TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE

The use of IT is an essential skill for education and employment. However, tech literacy is most of the time limited to acquiring competencies linked with traditional software suites. IFA Paris has decided to keep abreast of the digital transformation facing the fashion industry. We have launched in our Paris campus a dedicated Fashion Tech Lab named “Foundry”. Students from all programs can have access to the facility and explore cutting edge technologies related with digital pattern making, body scanning, virtual reality and even apprenticeship of Machine Learning for AI. The academic team has also integrated within all academic programs tech infused modules, seminars and projects addressing specific industry issues that can be solved through the adoption of a Tech perspective.

Students enrolled in our Online Postgraduate Fashion Tech and Innovation program benefit from remote access to Foundry’s Equipment.

SUSTAINABLE MINDSET

In line with IFA Paris commitment to sustainability, we are committed to help our students transform in key drivers of change who will be able to make coincide 3 important components: Planet, People and Profit. Through a variety of lectures and ateliers, students will be introduced to environmental accountancy, biomass textiles, upcycling techniques, extending product lifecycle techniques as well as strategies aiming at “closing the loop”. For more information: read about our Commitment to Sustainability.