Issues and trends in fashion education sustainability

United Nations (UN) has declared Sustainable Development Education (ESD) as an effort to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Hence, it is encouraged that all parties globally, the government, the industry and education to implement a holistic and creative ESD approach to realize the goals of SDGs. ESD issues are also discussed in fashion education because the fashion industry is a contributor to environmental pollution. Thus, the values of sustainability in fashion education should be applied to students at an early stage so that students can understand different perspectives when faced with sustainability issues. In addition, students' attitudes and behaviour towards environmental issues are also at a moderate level. Students have been influenced by various influences such as mass media, ideologies and other social aspects. Thus, the objective of this study was to provide more information on issues in sustainable fashion education. The researcher also tried to channel some initiatives and the mechanism that can be used for the ESD practice approach in fashion education. The methodology used in this article was through the information review of previous studies. The information collected consists of articles of study and existing reports. The general and specific keywords were also used in the information search. Besides, the researcher also modified previous research results and combined various previous research findings to identify issues and trends of ESD in fashion education. From the findings, several parties play important roles in practising ESD in fashion education. The parties involved are educators, educational institutions, the government and the industry. In addition, various approaches can be done to promote ESD practices to students such as the application of mixed technology, the use of conceptual models in the fashion curriculum, the development of sustainable fashion courses, innovation in curriculum and pedagogy as well as collaborative activities between institutions and the industry. The findings also showed that several theories and models of previous studies discussed the significant relationship of factors influencing ESD practices. Those theories are Theory of Planned Behavior-TPB, Norm Activation Theory - NAT, Predictors of Environmental Behavior: PEB model and KAP Model

Enhancing cosmetology students’ communication skills in Malaysian upper secondary vocational education program

The quality of beauty treatment services will be evaluated by the clients subjectively whether they are satisfied or otherwise with the services provided. However, the reports and complaints related to customer dissatisfaction when receiving beauty treatment services at beauty centers are increasing. Unfortunately, the suggestions for improvement from the previous studies are still insufficient. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the importance of proficiency in communication skills and the need for training modules in the teaching and learning process (T&L). It is required to improve communication skills among cosmetology students for Upper Secondary Vocational Education Program (USVEP) in beauty arts course. The data were collected through the interview method on six USVEP teachers and a beauty salon entrepreneur. The findings of the study found that the proficiency in communication skills among the cosmetology students is an important requirement for employers in selecting their employees, increasing customer loyalty and the customer’s frequency to visit beauty salons, and maintaining the excellent performance of cosmetology students in the workplace. In addition, there is also a high demand for the development of communication skills training modules in helping cosmetology students to constantly updated with new knowledge and skills needed from time to time. Therefore, adequate training is required to improve the competency in communication skills among the cosmetology students