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Pearl Academy of fashion opens its doors in the Emirate of Sharjah

E-Tex Staff - New Delhi

Bridging the Gulf

Envisaging the growing high-fashion industry in Dubai and Sharjah, Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF), in association with the promoters of Indian School, Ajman has launched Pearl Design Centre in Sharjah to provide aspiring fashion designers in the UAE with an 18 month intensive, practical and industry-oriented programme in fashion.

The Pearl Design Centre aims to train these aspirants to emerge as true professionals and cater to the local market in the Middle East. The launch has kicked off admissions for the new academic year slated to start in August 2003. With this pathbreaking initiative, PAF has become the first private Indian fashion technology institute to offer programmes in Sharjah.

According to the director, Indian School, Ajman and also the executive director of Pearl Design Centre, Mr T Mohanachandran, "It is the growing demand for vocational career among the local and expatriate population in UAE that was the decisive factor to set up a Design academy. We undertook a research study to envisage the demand and need for such courses and identified Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF) as a technical partner for the entire project."

As part of the agreement, PAF will train and recruit faculty to provide high quality professional services to the local industry by conducting relevant courses.

Commenting on the viability and popularity of the design programmes in UAE, Mr A K G Nair, executive director, Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF) said with limited options available for vocational studies or higher studies in the UAE, most of students head for either Europe or India for further studies. This portends tremendous potential for vocational education in UAE, he added. "Moreover, Dubai, Sharjah, Jebel Ali and Ajman, being well developed business and trading centres of the UAE manifest a very cosmopolitan outlook. The population is fairly conscious about brands and designers and thus underlines a definite need for such programmes.

According to the agreement, PAF will develop the course curriculum, recruit and train faculty, prepare course material and ensure quality in content delivery. Initially, Pearl Academy will offer its 18 month diploma programme in fashion design and clothing technology. "The programme developed is customised both in terms of content as well as delivery to suit the needs of UAE", said Mr Nair. A module on retailing and merchandising has been added in the course curriculum. However, keeping in mind the very international and well appraised outlook of the students in the UAE, customisation is predominant in terms of delivery of the content and in student dissertation projects.

To ensure high quality standards, Pearl Design Centre will admit 15 students after they have successfully completed the admission process, which includes an entrance exam and a personal interview. The centre will maintain a 1:5 teacher-student ratio and allocate 100 sq feet per student as student-space ratio, which are comparably the highest in education.

Citing the pre-launch study done by the promoters, Mr Nair said though Dubai and Sharjah are very small geographically, perhaps the size of south Delhi, but they house some of the most affluent of population with very high disposable income for shopping purpose. In fact the exercise of shopping is a major social event and that is evident from the fact that Dubai itself has over 20 large size shopping malls, each housing at least 20 high-end designer outlets that sell only the haute couture collection. Also the local population is very keen on what they wear and who design their clothes. All these factors suggest very demanding and educated customers who are in touch with the latest in the fashion world. However, there are no established local designers and there’s no institute of repute to nurture such talent. Pearl Academy intends to bridge this gap and generate interest among the local population towards the fashion lines, he added.

According to Ms Smitha Menon, director, Pearl Design Centre, "The local population, though heavily influenced by the Indian trends - due to large population presence in the region/close proximity with India and a very huge influence by the Bollywood industry, they still have some very unique demands and needs of their own flavour. Hence, combined with the skills imparted by the Indian experts, our design centre aims to groom a generation that is very well versed in the world of fashion designing and retailing."

The target audience is mainly the local population that has great Indian influence and of course a large chunk of Indian population that cannot achieve the same in India for various reasons.