Designer Competency of the Fashion Design Undergraduate Students in Thailand: A Need Assessment Perspective

Boonthon Kornchanok and Ratanaolarn Thanin
Additional contact information
Boonthon Kornchanok: Ph.D., Candidate in Industrial Education, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Thailand
Ratanaolarn Thanin: Ph.D., Assistant. Prof., Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Thailand

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2019, vol. 10, issue 4, 143-153

Abstract: This study used a mixed approach research design. The objectives were to study employers’ and college instructors’ needs regarding the designer competencies of undergraduate fashion-design students in Thailand, and to propose a guideline for the development of designer competencies of undergraduate fashion-design students in Thailand. For the quantitative approach, the research samples included 250 business owners/designers and 163 college instructors from fashion design faculties in Thai universities. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument. Data were collected by email. A “need-assessment analysis” technique was implemented in the data analysis. Regarding the qualitative approach, 15 key informants were interviewed via the interview script. A “content analysis” technique was used to analyse the qualitative data in this research. The results revealed that the employers’ need for improved components of knowledge competencies was consistent with the need of college instructors: both placed a priority on the development of language knowledge, followed by product-management knowledge, innovative knowledge and design knowledge. The employers’ need for improved components of skill competencies was consistent with the need of college instructors: both placed a priority on the development of language skills, followed by product-management skills, innovative and technology skills, and design skills. The employers’ need for improvement of qualification competencies was consistent with the need of college instructors: both placed a priority on the social role, followed by inner drive and self-conceptualisation, respectively. However, the findings indicated a difference between their needs: employers found that none of the qualification competencies needed rapid development, whereas college instructors indicated that one component needed rapid improvement – the social role.

Keywords: Designer; designer competency; students’ competency; fashion design; fashion-design students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/mjss-2019-0060 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:mjsosc:v:10:y:2019:i:4:p:143-153:n:14

DOI: 10.2478/mjss-2019-0060

Access Statistics for this article

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences is currently edited by Alessandro Figus

More articles in Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().