The Fashion Industry is a very competitive one. In the UK thousands of Fashion graduates pour into the jobs market every July. Many are forced abroad or prefer to move abroad for the glamour that well known Fashion Houses may provide - but what of the rest?

Well, before you decide to change course for good you'd do well to really research in depth the breadth of opportunity that the UK Fashion Business has to offer.

A good number of the Fashion students that I teach dream of being a Designer and envisage days of illustrating and catwalk shows. Of course this is an unrealistic expectation and it rarely proves to be quite as glamourous as expected.

My advice for careers in the Fashion Business would be to check out all of the other myriad of options in addition to Design - you only have to type 'Fashion' into the UCAS subject search and you will realise how many courses and career options there really are.

Of course you could also choose to 'work backwards' as there are many areas of the industry crying out for well-skilled staff. The excellent website Skillfast-UK promotes these areas within Fashion and provides excellent video links of case studies from individuals in these varied areas of Fashion.

Whatever area you choose to go into, you'll need to be passionate and hungry for it. There will be many others in competition with you. Be careful though that you research and complete work experience to really 'taste' these areas first. It's no use going into 'Fashion Styling' on a whim and it's pointless considering a career in Fashion Buying if you hate Maths!

Research it well, buy the books, speak to people, make a nuisance of yourself. And finally, if you really do want to design Fashion, make sure that you have a good understanding of Pattern Cutting and Construction. You won't get far just drawing 'Pretty Pictures'.