Esmod to support young Sub-Saharan Africa fashion talent

The Esmod International group of fashion schools has decided to turn to Sub-Saharan Africa by partnering with French-English audiovisual academy LAFAAAC. The aim of this partnership, supported by the French Embassy in Nigeria, is to accompany a new generation of professionals in their ambition to create a brand and to allow young African talents to increase their skills.

Co-founded in 2017 by former strategy consultant in the telecom and audiovisual industries Olivier Pascal, alongside Julien Boeuf and François Catala, LAFAAAC stands for the Franco-Anglophone Academy of Audiovisual Arts and Cinema.

The academy has a training platform for creative professions (audiovisual, radio, cinema, web) whose primary market is Africa. The platform includes 6 technologies, the most important of which is a mobile application that provides access to training courses on the various audiovisual creative professions.

Five million people are currently working in the creative industries in French and English-speaking Africa. The problem, says telecom expert Pascal, is that 90 percent of these people are self-trained through the internet or through peer-to-peer exchanges.

The platform aims to give an already trained public - professionals in the sector, companies developing a training policy, institutions, or newcomers to the market - a general vision of the sector and the interactions between the various professions in the production chain.

The partnership will allow Esmod International to test a local market in full expansion and LAFAAAC to add a new dimension to its training offer in blended learning. As part of the collaboration, a five-course programme will be created, dedicated to entrepreneurship in the fashion industry.

The programme was created in close collaboration with successful Nigerian fashion designer Lisa Folawiyo. "The aim of this programme is to provide future fashion professionals on the African continent with the tools for launching a project and a business in the field of fashion," summarises Esmod fashion schools group in a press release.

The digital programme will be completed by a call for applications which will select a dozen students to participate in virtual and face-to-face class sessions led by a professional in the sector.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.FR, translated and edited into English by Veerle Versteeg.