| Abstract: | Abstract The purpose of the study was to examine the importance of the educational criteria to graduates of fashion merchandising programmes. A 74-item questionnaire based on the core curricular competencies identified by the International Textiles and Apparel Association (ITAA) and course objectives of two fashion merchandising programmes was developed. The questionnaires were mailed to 296 alumni of two universities. The response rate was 37%. Twenty-four (32%) of the criteria were rated as most important or very important. Of these, 42% were based on the ITAA core competencies and 58% on course objectives. An additional analysis was conducted to determine whether managers rated the criteria differently from merchandisers. t-Tests determined that there was a significant difference in only 10 of the criteria. The results of this study provided a means to assess two fashion merchandising programmes. It also provided an initial validation of the ITAA core competencies from a fashion merchandising perspective and a preliminary examination of the educational criteria for a fashion merchandising core. |
