KEY POINTS:
Qualification: Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences.
Where: University of Otago.
Contacts: ph: 0800 80 80 98, website www.otago.ac.nz, email: raechel.laing@otago.ac.nz
No specific prerequisites; recommended subjects include English, biology, chemistry, maths, history.
Course dates and enrolment dates: Enrolment December 1; courses start late February/early March for semester 1 and full year papers, and early July for second semester papers.
No numbers limit on course
Course fees: Depends on papers taken, typically about $4800 a year.
Starting salary for graduates: Depends on speciality, but around $35,000-$50,000.
Career opportunities: Product development, production manager, retail, teacher, museum work, scientific officer, health and safety specialist, theatre/film, social work, nutrition, graphic design. Clothing and Textile Sciences qualifications from Otago are internationally recognised and are accredited by the Textile Institute.
Otago University's three-year Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences is a degree offering a wide career base.
The degree's major subjects, clothing and textile sciences, community and family studies, design studies, consumer food science and human nutrition focus on the needs, development and health of people in our society and also on developing, using and understanding these resources.
The various degree structures allow students to select other subjects which support their major subject, special interests and career aspirations.
Clothing and textile sciences work opportunities include: product development (whiteware, apparel), production manager, retail, teacher (technology, science), museum marketing/co-ordination/registrar, scientific officer, health and safety specialist, theatre/film, research. Community and family studies is a good grounding for social work and counselling.
Consumer food science can lead to product development, teaching and research, while design studies is a starting point for graphic design, and human nutrition can lead to nutrition advice, teaching and research.
Most majors, including clothing and textile sciences, are also available for other degrees (in the case of clothing and textile sciences, for the Bachelor of Science) but supporting subjects differ. Jane McCabe has tailored her clothing and textile sciences studies major to museum work, using the courses in clothing and Textile sciences to provide the principles of the discipline.
THE GRADUATE
Jane McCabe, 35, history technician, Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Graduated 2006.
I did a Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Science degree at Otago University, majoring in clothing and textile science. I also did a Bachelor of Arts in history at Otago in 1996.
After I did the Bachelor of Arts I had various employment for a few years. I had an interest in clothing and did some part-time fashion study in Dunedin but decided that was just a wee bit too practical.
So I went for the Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences with the clothing and textiles option because it combined that historical interest - social aspects of clothing but also the scientific side.
I knew there was a museum element to the course but it was only when I did it that I was directed towards them. As part of one paper, you do a project on artefact analysis using the clothing and textiles department's collection of historic dress.
We would research the history of the donor or the person who might have owned the piece of clothing. As well as using the scientific side, we could analyse the fibres and fabrics.
It was one of those moments where I thought something clicked - this was what I wanted to do.
Now I'm the history technician here at the museum and I'm assistant to the history curator. I would describe my job as caring for collections.
My role is cataloguing collections, photography, labelling and filling out worksheets and putting those on to the database, and preparing for storage or exhibition. I've been here just on four months.
Before this I had two project positions in small museums but this is my first permanent museum role. I jumped at this job opportunity when I saw it. It drew on all of my training and offered so many opportunities.
THE EMPLOYER
Rose Young, history curator, Auckland War Memorial Museum
Jane came with the absolutely right mix of qualifications and experience. We had a good short list but some of the work experience she had gave her an edge on those other applicants.
We wanted someone who had the experience, had worked within a museum and understood collection management within the large workplace.
Now that all of our collections are going on to database, it becomes increasingly important how you enter the information so that it is accessible both to staff and the public as we get our collections on line.
I wanted someone who had an aptitude for undertaking those responsibilities and that definitely came through Jane's course in the clothing and textile side.
Plus, one of her positions was working with a collection and helping create and being involved in a database.
Jane had the two qualifications, the BA in history and the add-on was the Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences with the clothing and textile sciences major.
It is one of the few university courses that deal with the material culture rather than just the documents.
