This time of the year is usually stressful as we get to the end of the academic year where everyone has their last assessments and exams. Students graduate and looking for job opportunities. It is exciting and scary at the same time, especially when COVID-19 affects everyone at the moment.

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Three past graduates from The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) decided to share their thoughts in the Zoom Q+A where they’ve talked through their personal experiences and gave advice to the students who are struggling at the moment.  The Q+A also covered challenges of sustainability in textiles and how universities and students should adapt to them.

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Christina Wong hosted the event as part of the Fashion Revolution week.  The textile designer graduated from GSA last year and moved to India where she got offered a job at the Indian Mill.

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Christina said: “Not long ago we were graduates as well. We know everything about mental breakdowns, the stress, and the cons of graduating. We can imagine how more difficult it is for the students this year. We are not experts but we wanted to bring some help and support “.

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Julie Anne Fernandez also joined the Q+A last week, the designer graduated the same year as Christina and specialises in weave.  “I took a different career path after graduating, as what I do now is not focused on textiles but still within the design industry. Since graduating I’ve worked as a creative marketing assistant and now I am doing an internship with WGSN (trend forecasting company) from home, outside of London”, said Julie Anne.

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The third guest was MJ McKasiarz who graduated from GSA in 2017.  He moved to London to work for a company which produces multifunctional furniture.

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The best advice he can give to the students is: “don’t be discouraged, everything will come with time but most importantly use your knowledge and use your experiences you’ve gained in university to reach out to your potential employer. I think experience in this industry is crucial, so experience as much as you can and don’t be afraid to just go for it”.

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Julie Anne also agrees that students need to look for different opportunities.  “The biggest advice I can give is to be adaptable and to take a risk because you never know where it may lead you".

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In the Q+A, past graduates mentioned that “seeing the challenges of sustainability in textiles is also a learning curve once you start working”. Past graduates don’t think that they’ve been taught sustainability enough while they were at university.

 

Christina said: “I don’t think we were told enough to be graded in sustainability, if the school is going to grade us on this, they also need to teach us”.

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MJ believes that being a student gave lots of freedom as they were able to design anything they wanted and even though university never gave a lot of information on sustainability, he thinks every student needs to follow their own morals and instincts. As the designers, everyone has a responsibility to do more and to open their mind on sustainability without just relying on the university.

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Julie Anne is the opposite as she thinks it should be a part of the curriculum especially with everything that’s going on today.  “We as designers should create things which will make a difference. We have our own beliefs but I think university should be more accountable what they include in their curriculum”.

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“Education is not always 100 per cent right and maybe after the pandemic, every single type of the business, including education, will learn how we can approach this. A crisis like this is always a lesson for us, a lesson for everyone”, MJ added.

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Past graduates believe that the pandemic might accelerate changes in GSA and other universities. There are certain changes in the fashion industry already. Fashion industry faces many challenges and the best thing to do is to quickly adapt to them. Change will come if everyone will add something into it. It is important to bring a new thing to particular job roles in order to move forward.

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The Zoom Q+A includes more information about the changes in the fashion industry and also addresses advises for the students who are about to apply for new jobs and look for work experiences.