January 14, 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of High Fashion Womenswear Institute. In these ten years the institute has knitted dreams for so many, adhering to the school motto of "professionalism, goodness and virtues", and inheriting High Fashion's corporate culture of "fulfilling ourselves in fulfilling others". Remembering the reason we started, we have cultivated more than 4,000 talents. This is going to pass on as a contribution to society and the industry.
The Establishment of the Third Council and Management Team of High Fashion Womenswear Institute
In the morning of January 5, the first board meeting of the third council of High Fashion Womenswear Institute was held in High Fashion (China) Co., Ltd. Mr. Will Lam and Mr. Well Lam, Executive Directors of the Group, Ms. Zheng Lu, General Manager and Party Secretary of High Fashion (China), and Ms. Shen Qiong Fang, Group Human Resources Director attended the meeting. Jin Bo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, Xu Gaofeng, Executive Vice President of High Fashion Womenswear Institute and leaders of other colleges also attended the meeting. The Group specially invited Professor Yeung Kwok Wing, former Deputy President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Non-executive Director of the Group, to participate in the meeting and provide advice for the next decade of development of the institute.
The Institute and High Fashion Group has jointly elected the 3rd High Fashion Womenswear Institute council: Will Lam, Jin Bo, Well Lam, Xu Gaofeng, and Zheng Lu. Among them, Mr. Will Lam serves as the Chairman and Mr. Jin Bo serves as the Vice Chairman. In the board meeting, the management team of the third High Fashion Womenswear Institute council was appointed. Mr. Well Lam will serve as the President and Mr. Xu Gaofeng as the Executive Vice President.
At the meeting, Mr. Xu Gaofeng summarized the development of High Fashion Womenswear Institute in the past ten years and looked ahead to the plan for the next ten years. All participants discussed the development and talent training of High Fashion Womenswear Institute in the next decade. Mr. Well Lam proposed to formulate talent training programmes based on the talent development needs of the three circles of "market", "supply chain" and "standard factory" to strengthen the training of supply chain management expertise; at the same time, he proposed that High Fashion Womenswear Institute should strengthen international cooperation; and establish more cooperation projects, formulate research topics, and conduct in-depth research to identify production pain points, allowing both the school and enterprise to work on solutions. Professor Yeung specifically proposed that we focus on cultivating thinking and analytical skills of students, as well as paying attention to environmental protection and sustainable development. Jin Bo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, suggested that in the next ten years, we should devote efforts to technological innovation, industry-education-research collaboration and talent training with the use of informatised and flexible teaching. At the end, Mr. Will Lam pointed out that the training of students in the next ten years should concentrate on automation, intelligent manufacturing, and technology applications; students should understand the competition between different countries and have a global vision and mindset. It is necessary to strengthen the education of humanistic quality and also enhance their competitiveness by participating in the research of corporate pain points and seeking solutions.
The 10th Anniversary Symposium of High Fashion Womenswear Institute
In the afternoon of the same day, the 10th Anniversary Symposium of High Fashion Womenswear Institute was held in Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College. Jin Bo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, Jia Wensheng, the President of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, and other relevant department heads of the college; Well Lam, Zheng Lu and Shen Jiong Fang of High Fashion Group, Xu Gaofeng and all other members of the management team of High Fashion Womenswear Institute and heads of various majors attended the symposium. The guests gathered at the conference, including Professor Yeung Kwok Wing, Professor Yu Wing Man, a former professor of the Department of Textiles and Clothing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Fei Jianming, Secretary General of the International Silk Union cum the first President of High Fashion Womenswear Institute, Han Licheng, President of Zhejiang Garment Industry Association, Xu Shuyan, the President of Hangzhou Polytechnic cum the first Executive Vice President of High Fashion Womenswear Institute, Zhu Yali, Principal of Hangzhou Xiaoshan No. 3 Secondary Vocational School, and Wang Bofeng, Vice Principal of the School.
All the participants visited the teaching site of High Fashion Womenswear Institute and enjoyed students' hand paintings, clothing designs and other works.
At the symposium, Zheng Lu and Jia Wensheng, on behalf of High Fashion (China) and Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, respectively, signed a new ten-year school-enterprise strategic cooperation agreement.
Well Lam and Jin Bo unveiled the plaque of "Textile and Apparel Engineering Innovation Centre".
High Fashion Womenswear Institute has evolved as it has grown in these ten years, and we all purse another milestone and a new chapter together. Participants and guests shared their thoughts on the development of the institute in the past ten years, and also provided advice and comments on the development of the future ten years.
Professor Yeung Kwok Wing is the former Deputy President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Academic Development) who holds a pivotal position in the education sector. He said that our school-enterprise cooperation had a good start, and to continue the momentum, the key is in the second decade. The institute must not only train their hands-on skills, but also put more emphasis on their critical thinking skills and teach more basic knowledge, so that students can better adapt to future changes. On top of this, we should think about the design of the curriculum and the future development of the institute. To cultivate students' understanding of environmental protection and sustainable development, the way we understand everything must no longer be a straight line from "birth to death", but from "birth to birth", which is a circular process of recycling and circulating. High Fashion has always performed well on this, and the company can share more of it with the students.
As the first President of the High Fashion Womenswear Institute, Mr. Fei Jianming was deeply moved when he talked about the construction of the institute. He said that he missed and cherished the good time during the two years of his tenure. In the past decade, High Fashion Womenswear Institute has achieved fruitful and gratifying results. In the first ten years, our key direction for training students was sampling specialists. According to the development of the industry, in the next ten years, he suggested that we should cultivate students' fashion design concepts, operations of technology and intelligence, and information and digital research and development capabilities.
Ms. Xu Shuyan spoke emotively and recalled the situation of running the school. She first thanked Mr. Lam Foo Wah, the Chairman of the High Fashion Group. She shared that Chairman Lam personally took part in the planning and design of the institute, and there were already 286 emails between them alone. She also thanked Professor Yeung for building a platform for exchange and learning from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Mr. Fei Jianming, the then CEO of High Fashion (China), for his devoted engagement in the whole process, and Mr. Ye Jianming, the then President of the institute for locating the right partners and providing full support of various resources for the institute. She said, it is still important that we dream. In the early days of the establishment of the institute, the High Fashion Womenswear Institute set very high goals that seemed unachievable. Now looking back, most of the goals have been achieved with the joint efforts of everyone. This is why we still have to carry on with our dreams.
The new President, Mr. Well Lam, acknowledged the achievements of the High Fashion Womenswear Institute in the first ten years and that the institute and the enterprise have created outstanding achievements together. He shared with everyone the corporate culture of High Fashion, which is "faith, solution, action, proof". You do it when you learn it; but when you teach others to do it, that is when you comprehend it. In the past ten years, the teachers have not only learned it, but also comprehended it by teaching the students. This symbolized their hard work and dedication. He is moved and proud of everyone. In the future, High Fashion Womenswear Institute will work with the company to solve the pain of the industry, make up for its shortcomings and weaknesses, develop supply chain talents and scientific and technological talents, establish sustainable development thinking, and explore better ways of cooperation.
Professor Yu Wing Man shared with everyone the teaching methods and concepts of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is also having deep and thorough collaboration with enterprises to provide the best applied teaching and learning. She said that teachers and students should travel more to see the world and learn more foreign languages. For silk and knitting, we can go to Italy; for lingerie, we can go to France. Our teaching is not to teach a specific knowledge point, which can be easily found online, but to let young people learn to think, analyze, innovate, and follow the trend. Such requirements pose great challenges to teachers and students, but we must be in sync with the international situation.
Throughout the symposium, there were also inspiring speeches from Mr. Han, the President of Zhejiang Garment Industry Association, and Mr. Zhu, Principal of Hangzhou Xiaoshan No. 3 Secondary Vocational School. Mr. Han especially emphasized the craftsmanship spirit and the need to strengthen our strengths. Mr. Zhu also briefly summarized the results of the in-depth cooperation between No. 3 Secondary Vocational School and High Fashion, and that this cooperation project between High Fashion and the institute has become a model project for Hangzhou modern apprenticeship.
The symposium was hosted by Mr. Jia, the President of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, and he spoke with wits and emotions. He said that we must position ourselves accurately, integrate deeply and broadly, and work hard on the industry-education-research collaboration platform. At the same time, the contribution of schools to enterprises should be improved, such as creating brands and initiating projects jointly. "High Fashion Phenomenon" is now a representative case in the education industry. The team can do better and must enhance its publicity.
In his final conclusion, Mr. Jin Bo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College, looked back on the past and expressed gratitude to several parties; looking ahead, he stressed that we should not forget why we started and should strive to achieve for greater heights. In the future, we should not only enhance students' technical skills, but also their innovation capabilities and scientific and humanistic literacy. The next step is to explore new ideas and new ways to build a research and development hub through technological innovation; to improve the R&D capabilities of both the institute and enterprise by working on the industry-education-research collaboration platform; to optimise the positioning of jobs and upgrade the training model; and to improve the curriculum of courses.
The Past 10 Years - Accurate, Deep and Broad
Successfully built a hub for training technical talents in the women's fashion industry
Since the signing of the cooperation agreement on January 14, 2009, High Fashion Womenswear Institute has embarked on a unique road of integration of industries into education and school-enterprise cooperation with the characteristics of Hangzhou Vocational and Technical College. At present, "High Fashion Phenomenon" has become a successful school-enterprise cooperation model.
In these ten years of co-construction, co-management, co-operation, co-development, and integration, fashion design students have won gold medals in the National Garment Skills Competition for eight consecutive years. In 2014, the "innovation and practice of the training model of clothing professionals based on the school-enterprise cooperation" of the institute won the National Teaching Achievement First Prize; the institute won the National Textile Industry Federation Teaching Achievement First Prize for five consecutive years; in 2011, the school-enterprise cooperation practice of the "High Fashion Womenswear Institute" was selected into the "Compilation of Cases of National Higher Vocational Education Service Industry Development Achievements", to be promoted nationwide. In 2015, the fashion major teaching resource library established by the institute was successfully initiated as a national higher vocational education industry teaching resource library construction project.
A decade of journey has been through, the teams of the institute and enterprise have worked hard and forged ahead, and successfully integrated fashion industries into school teaching, enterprise standards into teaching assessment, enterprise specialists into school student teams, and corporate culture into campus culture.
The Next 10 Years - Advanced, Precise, Cutting-edge
High Fashion Womenswear Institute
Playing a Long Game
After the signing of the new ten-year cooperation agreement, High Fashion Womenswear Institute will make further efforts in the "precise" orientation of talent training, the "advanced" industry-education-research collaboration, and the "cutting-edge" technological innovation and leadership.
In the next ten years, we will achieve three further optimisations in talent training. One is to re-optimize job positioning. The women's fashion industry has transformed and upgraded, entering a new era. High Fashion Womenswear Institute will further optimize its position of jobs according to the requirements of industry development under the guidance of experts from High Fashion Group. The second is to optimize the training model. We will deepen the reform of the talent training model based on the school-enterprise community, and jointly develop the mode of modern apprenticeship training; integrate innovation and entrepreneurship education into the whole process of talent training, and carry out customised training through skilled master studios and famous teaching studios. The third is to optimize the curriculum system. We will construct a curriculum system of "platform + direction" for various majors to carry out personalised training, and use the national fashion major teaching resource library library to comprehensively improve the level of informatisation teaching.
Mr. Lam Foo Wah, Chairman of High Fashion International Group, once said, “Our goal is to build High Fashion Womenswear Institute into a world-class womenswear academy leading the development of the women’s fashion industry, teaching for the future of the enterprise, outperforming in the highly competitive market, and making China a stronger and larger garment textile manufacturing centre - the garment textile manufacturing centre for the world." Let us head towards the next decade with this goal.
