Your first year is an introduction to the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to explore, enhance and sustain your development and determine a standard from which all other activities and learning will develop. You will be given a broad introduction to fashion retail that will develop your understanding of the subject area and industry.

Principles of fashion business and retail
Provides you with a broad introduction to the contexts within which fashion retail is situated and the diversity of roles, responsibilities and employment opportunities within the sector. The unit will also introduce you to the particular personal and professional characteristics required for a career in fashion business and retail.

Communication for fashion business and retail
Provides you with an introduction to oral, written and visual communication as integral to activities in the fashion retail industry. You will explore and analyse meaning, how to convey a message to an audience, and the importance of visual language and digital skills in the presentation and communication of ideas.

Critical and contextual awareness 
Is an introduction to the investigation of both historical and contemporary contexts. Through a thematic approach to the subject, you will research a broad range of perspectives that influence contemporary thinking in fashion retail.

Fashion production and supply chain 
Is an opportunity to acquire knowledge and understanding of garment production processes and an introduction to the global supply chain. You will explore the specific skills and attributes required for garment production and technology in fashion retail.

Fashion buying and merchandising
Is an introduction to buying and merchandising, including the opportunity to understand and apply essential numeracy skills and knowledge required for buying and merchandising for fashion retail.

Fashion management and marketing
Is an opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills and understanding of fashion retail structures, organisation and functions, and to explore customer behaviour and the specific skills and attributes required for management and marketing within the fashion retail industry

Visual merchandising for fashion retail
Provides you with an opportunity to explore display across the spectrum of fashion retail environments - both in-store and online - and the specific skills and knowledge required to enhance sales through the use of visual merchandising.

Collaborative fashion retail project
Is an opportunity to make use of the skills, knowledge and understanding developed in the preceding units. It will provide you with a measure of self-directed learning, and an opportunity to begin to clarify their longer-term goals through their choice of an activity to explore in greater depth within a substantial collaborative project.

During your second year, there are more focused opportunities to explore activities and competencies within fashion business and retail. The course is designed to encourage a personal dialogue in terms of ambitions, preferences and future progression opportunities. You will take an increasing responsibility for your own learning and personal ambitions.

Specialist study and preparation for progression in fashion business and retail
This unit will enable you to develop the entrepreneurial, professional and vocational skills necessary for progression within your chosen discipline, and to identify and prepare for a degree course or employment depending on your ambitions.

Fashion retail environments
You will research and critically examine both historical and contemporary contexts, different technologies and their influence on the development of the fashion retail environment. This unit will enable you to demonstrate your understanding of the consumer within a diverse range of markets, and to present ideas, knowledge and understanding of the means by which audiences might be reached and addressed.

Fashion futures and sustainability
Requires you to investigate the ethical and environmental impact of the global supply chain. The unit will enable you to explore future trends and developments within the fashion retail industry and, through a personal research project, present ideas and solutions in response to and in anticipation of change.

Project proposal in fashion business and retail
Provides you with an opportunity to reflect on, review and summarise your personal progress and achievement through the preceding units, and to present a rationale for your choice of discipline and final project context. The unit will require you to articulate the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired throughout the course, and present ideas for the development of an independently conceived, planned, realised and evaluated extended project.

Extended project in fashion business and retail
Is an opportunity for you to engage in an extended activity related to your discipline of choice. The unit will enable you to take responsibility for your learning by responding positively to the greater opportunities for individual expression and creativity afforded. It will also provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate their achievement through realising a project, which integrates the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired throughout the course.

We run a supportive Diploma 2 Degree scheme which helps streamline the process of progressing from a pre-degree to an undergraduate course with us at UCA.

The scheme guarantees your place on a degree course at UCA, providing you get the support of your tutor and course leader, and successfully pass your course. More details about the scheme can be found on the Diploma 2 Degree pages.

Instead of further study you may also choose to do an apprenticeship in the industry, either in a store or at an office.