Winglow Fashion Academy

What is the Winglow Fashion Academy?

The Winglow Fashion Academy was founded in February 2016 with a simple vision – to make training in the fashion industry accessible to anyone with passion.

Traditionally, gaining a quality education in apparel manufacturing meant committing to a three-year apprenticeship. This is not feasible for everyone, not just due to costs, but also time constraints. For people from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially women, three years is an unrealistic time to take away from earning or caring for a family.

For that reason, we designed the courses on a modular basis, tackling one element of fashion production at a time. This allows students to study intensively and gain skills in a much shorter timeframe than traditional apprenticeships allow.

Places are funded either by student fees, or where a student cannot afford the training independently, Winglow offers bursaries for students in financial need as part of our CSR initiatives with our Needy Students Fund. We believe strongly that education is the best way to ensure a person’s economic independence, and we have a commitment to lifelong learning, with tuition open to anyone aged 15-65. We are proud to play our part in giving back to our communities by providing a vocational education.

Studying at Winglow Fashion Academy

We currently offer two courses:

Main Course – this is a Government Partnered Programme in Competency Based Training and gives a student recognised competencies to allow them to start working professionally in the apparel manufacturing business or increase their fashion skill base for greater opportunities.
 
Winglow Short Course – this course features 10 modules delivered in less time than our traditional course.
 

Our training is intensive, with each module taking just four weeks or even less time on the Short Course. Study days run from 8am to 5pm with an hour for lunch, and each student receives one-on-one teaching during the day, with assignments set for the next day. Students are assessed on a weekly basis to check on their progress

After a module is completed, the student can choose to end their course or continue on to another module. Once a year, we organize a graduation ceremony for students who have successfully concluded their modules, and issue certificates as proof of a graduate’s new skills.

Student Success

Many of our students use their new expertise to gain employment that would have been inaccessible to them before attending the Winglow Fashion Academy, but we have also had numerous entrepreneurial students who have taken their training with us and used it to form an independent career. Several are now in a position to take on trainees of their own, encouraging more people to gain valuable skills.

Former student Mavis Sefa now runs her own boutique, and has five apprentices. Elikplim Kumadzro, founder of Eli and Eli, is another Winglow graduate, and his business combines fashion with décor, both interior and exterior. Eli and Eli now offers internships to current Winglow students.

Join the Academy

If you are interested in taking the next step in your career in fashion, please contact us for more information on enrolling in the Winglow Fashion Academy.