Determined Clothing and Textile Studies students have proven that it’s never too late to upgrade their skills and qualifications to be better qualified for greener pastures in industry.

Zola Ngcobo and Busisiwe Mchunu will receive their National Diploma in Clothing and Textile Studies at the Durban University of Technology Graduation ceremony on 20 June 2008. They are now on a training pogramme as trainee buyers at Mr Price Group. They are both placed with the Miladys Label.

They have confirmed that perseverance is the mother of success after overcoming hurdles throughout their studies. Their studies have been interrupted by dropouts in between, and in some instances due to financial difficulties. They each dropped out and worked for two consecutive years. Determined to be qualified fashion designers they later returned to campus to complete their studies. At times they did not perform well in their studies but still worked harder to achieve their ultimate goals. For this reason it took them a long time to complete their studies.

Ngcobo (24) hails from Portshepstone and now lives in Isipingo. Part of her duties at Mr Price Group include following trends on fashion colours for the season, latest leisure, career and lady’s clothes. Based on the information she gathers when conducting research, she places orders for the fashion required by customers. She acknowledges that the knowledge she gained from DUT has helped her a great deal in her present job. She aspires to garner more experience and become an established buyer in future. She is ecstatic to have attained her goal of qualifying as a fashion designer. She once served an internship with Devincot Holdings in Mayville. She advises other students to follow their dreams and never take their eyes of their goals.

Mchunu (24) was born in Mzumbe and now lives in Pinetown. She is also on a retail training programme to be a fashion buyer at Mr Price Group, Miladys Label. She enrolled for her first year and dropped out to work as a design coordinator for Gemelli in Sydney Road. She designed clothes, ensured that orders were in place and checked design patterns and ensured delivery dates were met. She later realized that there were no promotion prospects and decided to return to campus to complete her studies. She resigned from her job to concentrate on her studies. She felt not having a qualification held her up from progressing in her career. She is grateful that she has completed her studies and she feels motivated to study further next year. She intends doing a BCom degree in marketing and management. She believes this will help her move out of retail when she wants to pursue other interests. She also wants to train to be a fashion designer.

For more information contact:
Zola Ngcobo
084 817 0391
Busisiwe Mchunu
073 221279