WOLKITE UNIVERSITY

 COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

GARMENT ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT PROFILE

Background

Enormous potentials of value added and employment opportunities have not made use of it until now. While developed nations add US $180 of value by processing one ton of agricultural products, developing countries generate only US $ 40. 

Garment Sector is a very attractive proposition for the value addition for the developing countries in view of the obvious advantages which are listed below briefly:

• Modest levels of investment
• High rate of employment generation, particularly for women
• High demand for garments in the international market, particularly from the developed countries
• Growth of Textile Sector - as a provider of raw materials (fabrics and yarns)
• Growth of agriculture - as provider of raw materials and so on.

Many countries (e.g. Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan to quote a few developing countries) have immensely benefited by this route and Ethiopia has its advantages which can be exploited.

Ethiopian Situation

Ethiopia has been a recent entrant to this sector and faces many teething troubles, particularly with regard to quality, productivity, garment design and pattern making. This is due to the lack of properly educated personnel in this field.

Clothing is considered as one of the basic commodities in all parts of the world. The textile and garment-manufacturing sector represents one of the major industries in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government aims to foster rapid export growth through production of high value industrial products and increased support to export oriented manufacturing sectors. Poverty reduction is the core objective of the Ethiopian Government. Therefore, the effort made to strengthen the agriculture sector; the industry development strategy has been designed as agriculture led industrialization.

The Federal Ministry of Education has initiated the curriculum harmonization program in order to have uniform course syllabus and delivery in a program deliverd in different institutions. Accordingly, the Garment Engineering curriculum has been harmonized by Bahir Dar University –The Institute of Technology for Textile, Garment & Fashion Design and Wolkite University. The harmonization processes have been carried out using the guidelines and instruction given by HESC.

The Garment Engineering is a five year program. The curriculum constitutes 24 modules which aim to give specific competencies to the students. The mode of delivery and assessment methods for each course has been devised and incorporated.

STUDY PROGRAM FOR THE DEGREE OF B.SC. TVET IN GARMENT ENGINEERING (SUMMER PROGRAM)

The Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology, Wolkite University, Ethiopia, hereby, presents the curriculum for the new program “B. Sc., TVET in Garment Engineering (Summer)” that has been commenced from the academic year of 2007/08 G. C. (Academic Year of  2000 E. C. in the Ethiopian calendar).

The program’s basic aim is to enhance the credentials of the TVET teachers to upgrade their knowledge and qualification in the Garment Engineering Discipline along with pedagogical skills to impart training to the personnel required at the shop-floor level and above needed by the Garment Industry.

The program will have duration of 5 academic years - with the distribution of courses in 6 summers and 5 Distance Schedules. The distribution has been made to suit the TVET teachers already working in the TVET institutions as part of Continuing Education without disturbing their regular work and to enable them to utilize their spare time meaningfully, efficiently, effectively and gainfully.

The program covers courses that include the Garment Engineering Disciplines along with the Pedagogical and other relevant ancillary disciplines. The students who successfully complete the program will be eligible to be appointed and promoted to suitable positions in TVET institutions. They will be enabled to give courses to TVET students who on completing their programs will be employed gainfully in the Garment industry of Ethiopia. 

The introduction of this Program forms part of the Engineering Capacity Building Program of Ethiopia.

Mission

• To create an atmosphere of learning in which students acquire knowledge and learn to apply it properly with due consideration for ethical, ecological and economic issues
• To pursue research and disseminate research findings
• To provide knowledge based technological services to satisfy the needs of society and industry
• To help in building national capabilities in science, technology, humanities, Management, education and research.

 Vision

 To become a world class and national model teaching, research and service in the field of Garment Science, Engineering and Technology.

Objectives of the programme

The main objectives of the Garment engineering program are to provide broad-based education and training in Garment engineering; to enable graduates to be creative, adaptable, problem solver in the challenges of the engineering professions in rapidly changing environment that exists in the globe. These changes require the ability to apply existing knowledge in new ways thereby creating new systems and opportunities as well as adapting existing technology to local production conditions. Moreover, it aims to initiate, develop and sustain research activities that are critical for the conditioning of advancement of the Ethiopian garment industries.

 Expected outcomes of the Program

The graduates of the garment engineering study programme shall acquire the following capabilities and skills:

• Strong mathematical and analytical competencies to use the engineering sciences
• Knowledge of scientific principles
• An understanding of the effects of raw material on products
• Skills to manage production and control processes
• Basic knowledge of chemistry science leading to an understanding and modifying / optimising of design, manufacturing and marketing  of garments
• Ability to computer application for data logging and analysis as well as utilization of software
• Communication skills and team spirit which enables to work with various professionals including business men
• Ability in “scientific writing” for technical reports in management, projects and research
• Skills in organizing and carrying out systematic activities e.g. flow charts Skills in simulating industrial practice.

SPECIALIZATIONS OF A GARMENT ENGINEER

A garment engineer can specialize in the following and other areas:

• Product Designing
• Manufacturing
• Garment management
• Fashion technology
• Garment marketing and Merchandising

      POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS OF GARMENT ENGINEER IN ETHIOPIA

The main employers of Garment engineer professionals in Ethiopia at present are:

• Garment/Apparel industrial units in the public and private sector
• Garment training centers
• Consultancy houses
• Ministries and policy making organs
• Higher education institutions
• Non-government organizations
• Garment/Apparel trading companies.
• Others like insurance, bank, standard organizations etc.

Duration of Study

It is a five-year study program covering 300 ECTS credit points with 24 modules. Around 30-students are enrolled in 2004 E.C academic year (which may be increased further depending on the requirements and the felt needs of the stake holders).

Teaching-Learning Methods and Materials

The teaching-learning method adopted for the transfer and/or acquisition of knowledge includes:

• Classroom lectures backed by course-work projects, tutorials and assignments
• Design projects
• Workshop practice and laboratory works
• Presentations
• Industrial visits
• Industrial practice

Module Names and Distribution

The study program consists of ten semesters with the following sequence: one Assessment Semester, five Basic Studies Semesters, Internship Semester, and three semesters for Project-Based Studies.

The first year first semester is common to all engineering faculty students and meant for introducing students to engineering profession and covering basic courses. By the time the first semester is completed, students would have been motivated in several ways, including educational tours and hands-on workshop exercises. 

Starting from first year 2^nd semester to 4^th  year second semester, students of the Garment Engineering program focus on basic and relevant concepts, principles and tools of Garment Engineering studies.

After having successfully completed the basic engineering studies, students of the Garment Engineering Program will do their Internship in the 8^th semester. This will expose students to the real world of Garment Engineering, problems and practices. After the Internship Semester, students will be required to undertake Project-Based Courses and a Bachelor of Science Thesis work. This will equip students with knowledge and skills of practical significance.

The program allows students to follow three focus areas: Production Development and Management, Leather Products Manufacturing and Garment Merchandizing.

Structure of the program

The program comprises 24 modules with courses from diverse fields that include mathematics and natural sciences, field-specific basic sciences, field-specific specialization, non-field specific subjects, and practice-based studies. Each module consists of courses that are closely related to each other and facilitates systematic learning starting from the fundamental to advanced concepts. The courses in the modules are so arranged not to spread over more than 2 consecutive semesters.

The program has been designed to develop well-rounded engineers with high level of inter-disciplinary skills. The students will study all the basic engineering and mathematical courses to have foundational knowledge in the engineering. In the next stage, the students are introduced to the textile engineering subjects to have a good understanding of the fibres, yarns and fabrics, their manufacturing processes; this is essential as the graduate should have thorough knowledge about the ‘raw materials’ of the garment industry in order to fully exploit the potentials of various materials and the intricacies and effects on the garments. In the next stage, the students are introduced to the core courses of the garment engineering field viz. the cutting, sewing and finishing technologies along with design of garments and pattern making fundamentals. At this stage, the students have to undergo a holistic examination and the qualifying students will be eligible for Industrial Internship. The industrial internship will enable the students to experience at first hand the principles and practices that are prevailing at the shop floor level in a garment factory. The internship is expected to provide the students the much required ‘hands-on’ experience. On successful completion, the students further study the advanced courses which focus on developing high level of practical skills for the improvement of product quality, productivity, documentation procedures, and quality and maintenance management systems. Side by side, the students are imparted knowledge in the management aspects of the garment industry with suitable courses and electives are introduced to choose a focus area. Finally, the students will be required to work for a B. Sc. Thesis, in which the students are expected to take specific scientific, industrial or related problems, collect the necessary data, conduct necessary studies/experiments etc and come out with new insights for problem solving and implement the suggested measures.   

 Staff Profile

 Currently the Department has the following profile. In future, the Department has a plan to Increase the number of staffs and correspondingly their level. Efforts are continuously made to maintain and improve the quality of the teaching staff by their continuous education to higher levels; whenever there is a shortage in a specific area, temporary measures like recruitment of expatriate members are also undertaken to maintain the quality of the programs. As could be seen  from the tables given below, the Department has a rich diversity of disciplines in the staff members and this is particularly important when one considers that the Textile and Garment fields are truly ‘multi-disciplinary’ in nature. The Department aims to foster the diversity of the teaching staff members in various disciplines without losing sight of maintaining a large proportion of staff members firmly anchored in the core discipline of Garment field.