SewAfrica

SewAfrica is a fashion and sewing training centre in Ferndale, Randburg, in Gauteng. It was founded in 2001 in inner-city Johannesburg to serve the clothing sector, and began as a bridging course for students heading to Wits Technikon who had not studied art at school. It has since grown into a centre that trains people in garment construction, pattern making and fashion design, with a stated aim of keeping courses affordable and teaching skills that can be used to earn an income.

Teaching is in person, on the centre's own premises, using the centre's sewing machines and equipment. There is no distance or online learning. Full-time students attend on weekdays, the part-time sewing and pattern-making courses run on Saturdays, and the short courses in dressmaking and pattern making are intensive weekday blocks lasting about a month, starting in set months of the year.

The qualifications are of different kinds. The centre offers a National Certificate in Fashion & Manufacturing, which its site links to a SAQA qualification ID, alongside a Certificate in Fashion and a dressmaking short course that SewAfrica issues itself and labels as non-accredited.

Entry requirements depend on the course. The national certificate asks for Grade 11 with English and either Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy, and a minimum age of 18. The centre's own Certificate in Fashion asks for a lower school grade, a placement assessment and the same minimum age. The part-time pattern-making course and the dressmaking short course ask for a minimum age of 16, and pattern-making courses assume the student can already sew. Foreign qualifications need a SAQA evaluation report.

Applications are made by downloading a form or registering online, then supplying certified copies of identity and school documents, a photograph and a registration payment. Full-time programmes are registered for once a year, and the Saturday pattern-making course begins each February. Fees are set per course on the institution's own pages. Full-time courses can be paid once off or as a registration payment followed by monthly instalments, short courses must be paid in full before they begin, and students buy their own equipment and fabric, with refundable deposits for machine and box use.