CERTIFICATE IN APPAREL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Southern Polytechnic helps students prepare for a fast-paced apparel career through a technology based curriculum combining the advantage of classroom and laboratory

After earning their degree, students find their niche in areas such as Fashion/apparel design, International sourcing, apparel marketing, merchandising, plant operations and entrepreneurship.

The business of designing, producing, sourcing and distributing sewn products such as apparel is one of the largest and most important industries in the USA and worldwide. Excellent starting salaries, rapid advancement, job diversity, and travel are just some of the benefits to apparel technology graduates. The challenge is for the graduating student to use the skills they have obtained in the major courses along with sound management principles to create apparel better, faster and more profitably.

In the classroom

Discover the methods, materials and systems used in product development, production and sourcing of apparel items by reviewing current technologies and applications. Apparel technology students learn the entire sequence of apparel manufacturing

• Selection of fibers and fabrics

• Pattern grading and design

• Operator selection and training

• Machine evaluation and testing

• Computerized marking

• Computerized cutting

• Computerized pressing

• International warehousing and distributing

 They will also learn major engineering principles - costing, production rating, and global sourcing combined with management courses giving the graduate an excellent conceptual basis to enter the industry.

State-of-the-art facilities

Students in one of the nation's most modern facilities.  The W. Clair Harris Apparel and Textile Center includes next generation equipment, classrooms, a lecture hall and student personal computer labs.

The center also includes:

• two computer-aided design labs
• an interactive audio/video teleconference center
• a textile fabric formation laboratory
• a textile testing laboratory

Experience matters

The experienced faculty offer individual attention in small classes.   The small class sizes also provide students easy access to state-of the art systems and equipment.