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Art, Fashion and Design

UAL Level 3 Diploma / Extended Diploma in Creative Practice: Fashion

Mode of study

Full Time

Start date

08/09/2025

Entry requirements

A minimum of 4 GCSEs grade 9 - 4 including maths and English or a full Level 2 with a merit profile and grades 9 - 4 in English & maths.

Teaching staff

You will be taught across the subjects within Fashion and Clothing by six or more tutors, all of whom are highly qualified within their individual specialisms. All the tutors have in the past or are currently working in the world of Art Fashion and Design.

Course Code

DP3FHA1F/1

Duration

1-Year

Location

St Albans Campus

Awarding body

University of the Arts London

Assessment

All work is internally assessed throughout both years at college assessment weeks. Your work will be assessed by the relevant subject staff, but your personal tutor will keep a record of your progress on a portfolio index. An external moderator visits the department once a year to ensure that we are marking to the correct standard.

About the course

This course aims to equip students with a broad range of skills relevant to the fashion and associated industries and our students have an excellent track record of progression success. In the first year you will undertake the L3 National Diploma progressing onto the Extended Diploma in your second year. Subjects covered include pattern cutting, manufacture, textiles, design research, portfolio presentation, sketchbook development, fashion illustration, photography, CAD and Historical and Contextual studies. The course offers a stimulating working environment where students are encouraged to develop their own individual aesthetic signature. Emphasis is placed on technical ability, balanced by creative exploration and material investigation. The highlight of the course, is when students get to create a mini collection supported with research for their Final Major Project which is shown at the end of year show.

Career options

The L3 Extended Diploma is valued by both employers and Universities. This course prepares you for employment and provides an excellent grounding for more advanced courses at colleges and Universities. Career paths are many and varied some examples are: Fashion Design, Illustration, Pattern Cutting, Garment Manufacture, Set/Theatre Design, Fashion Promotion and Marketing. The course has an excellent track record for students entering their chosen University course.

All of our Art, Fashion & Design courses prepare you for an exciting career within the creative industries, with many students going on to study degrees at prestigious universities.

Potential careers:

  • Animator
  • Costume Designer
  • Ceramicist
  • Fashion/ Clothing Designer
  • Fashion Illustrator
  • Fine Artist
  • Games Designer
  • Graphic Designer
  • Illustrator
  • Interactive Web Designer
  • Jewellery Designer
  • Model Maker/ Special Effects
  • Photographer
  • Product Designer
  • Stage/Set Designer
  • Technical Illustrator
  • Textile Designer

Course Content - What will I learn?

You will learn how to use a variety of different materials across a broad range of techniques and processes, some will be familiar to you and some will be new. You will learn new practical skills, but also how to develop your ideas through the design cycle from concept to finished outcome. You will learn how to research and talk about other artists and Fashion designers work and how looking at others work can help you develop your own ideas. We will encourage you to become an independent creative thinker who can also be part of a team. Presentation skills are an important part of becoming a designer so regular critiques are held in all classes.
All learners at Oaklands College take part in an initial assessment for Maths and English, to help us ensure that everyone reaches their full potential. We deliver Functional skills as an additionality. In the first year students are given support for their communication skills through Contextual studies and subject lessons and in the second year Functional skills ICT is delivered in tutorials. In year two there is an additionality of City and Guilds L2 Life drawing. There are regular trips throughout the 2 years to Clothes show Live, V&A, Natural History Museum, Fashion & Textile Museum and in the second year a foreign trip.

Please contact us to find out if you require any specific equipment for this particular course.

All work is internally assessed throughout both years at college assessment weeks. Your work will be assessed by the relevant subject staff, but your personal tutor will keep a record of your progress on a portfolio index. An external moderator visits the department once a year to ensure that we are marking to the correct standard.