Changing careers through online study

In this article, Sustainable Fashion MA (Online) student Alanis tells us about how she’s transforming her future and planning a career change with the help of her online studies at Falmouth. 

Hi, I’m Alanis, a student on Falmouth’s online master’s in Sustainable Fashion. I don’t actually come from a fashion background; I studied French and Spanish and graduated with a combined honours undergraduate degree in 2018.  

Soon after completing my degree, I went straight into working in retail, hoping to save up some money to then help me relocate elsewhere. A year later I started working for a French fashion brand. I was still working in retail, but I hoped that this might present more opportunities to use my language skills and to work my way into an industry I was passionate about. However, fast-forward several months and COVID-19 sent into our first lockdown, leaving me furloughed. Not only this, but the start of the pandemic also marked the start of what would be a turbulent journey with chronic health issues.  

From 2022 I found myself working in administration, and thankfully my health began to improve. Yet, as my health improved, I realised that I wasn’t getting any sense of fulfilment from my role and I knew that there was so much more I was capable of, I just wasn’t sure how to tap into it. I began looking for roles related to my degree. However, many employers opted for native speakers. Alternatively, I felt pushed towards teaching roles, which I knew I was not suited for personally. Other roles that were of interest to me required other qualifications, skills or experience that I was lacking, leaving me feeling like I was getting nowhere. I felt deflated. 

I believe not coming from a fashion or design background allows me to look at the issues facing the industry from a different angle.

This led me to consider returning to education. Yet, I questioned what my odds were of getting accepted into a new field. Creativity is something that has always brought me so much joy and I felt myself circling back around to this, as well as a need to feel like I was making a difference in the world. Ever since my teenage years I have been curious about the world of sustainable fashion, but didn’t really see any avenues into it. After starting knitting in late 2021 as a way to process my chronic health journey, I became even more interested in the world of sustainable fashion.  

In 2023, I was researching my options when I came across the Sustainable Fashion MA at Falmouth. After looking more into the course and talking to some of the university’s advisors, I pushed any doubts I had aside and decided to apply. Coming from a different field, I doubted I would get accepted, but to my surprise I received an unconditional offer a couple of months later. I was beyond excited – I finally felt like I had found something I was truly passionate about and now I was able to run with it.  

Admittedly, despite having craved creativity, I was not used to having so much creative freedom, and as much as I wanted to embrace it, it actually took a little while to get used to. With languages, the learning process and assignment structure is quite systematic: you have the core areas of a language that you really just need to build on, which is done through practice, for example, doing grammar drills. So, this new style of learning felt very new to me at first. However, once I found my footing, the creative freedom has allowed me to truly hone in on areas of sustainable fashion that I really engage with, which also adds a very personal element to the work I’m doing.