ITALY ACADEMICS
The 4-week summer program offers apprenticeships with Master Craftsmen and Artisans working at exclusive brands, and business and sustainability internships with ZeroLab.
APPRENTICESHIPS
Apprenticeships are organized by Schola Academy Firenze in collaboration with renowned brands such as Stefano Bemer, Scuola del Cuoio, Superduper, and Cibrèo. Apprenticeships are hands-on experiences that are supervised by Master Artisans from the partner brands.
Fashion apprenticeships integrate design, technical skills (pattern-making, construction, etc.), branding, and marketing. Culinary apprenticeships integrate the knowledge of ingredients, cooking skills, and restaurant management. The aim is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to realize their ideas and creativity into an actual finalized product.
Students enroll in one 6-credit apprenticeship. Click on the title to download the syllabus.
Custom Handmade Sneakers (Stefano Bremer)
Students will learn how to design and make, from scratch, a pair of handmade sneakers and how to deconstruct, regenerate and customize an existing one under the guidance of Stefano Bremer craftsmen.
Sustainable Leather Experience (Bagmaking)
Students will be fully immersed in the process of bag-making focusing on the various types of leather and basic skills and techniques in the creation of a bag.
Food Artisan @ Cibrèo
Students will learn how to develop a new concept for culinary projects and artisan food businesses. The course is designed with a focus on the knowledge of local, seasonal, and artisanal ingredients, cooking skills, and restaurant management.
CREDIT & TRANSCRIPTS
Credit and transcripts are issued by Schola Academy Firenze and Lincoln University (accredited in USA).
HOST UNIVERSITY
Schola Firenze offers apprenticeships that blend technical skills with a creative and cultural approach. The Schola works closely with major brands such as Stefano Bemer, Superduper, and Cibrèo to ensure a high level of craftsmanship and un-compromised quality.
INTERNSHIP @ ZEROLAB
The fashion sector represents the backbone of the Tuscan and Italian industry, counting almost 22,000 companies that employ over 120,000 employees and impacting over 28% of total exports. A fundamental part of the fashion sector is leather goods, where the high quality of products makes it possible to achieve an international reputation for the most important luxury brands. The economic scope of the sector has an equally strong impact on the environment and on the disposal chain: the leather goods sector creates an enormous quantity of waste, the main part of which are scraps of leather.
Zerolab’s mission is to reduce waste by exploiting artisan skills to transform waste into new products. Zerolab created the first hub for the creative recovery of leather scraps and serves as an incubator and training center for emerging designers, artisans, and craftspeople. The waste represents an opportunity to give new life not only to materials but to new ideas and projects.
Internships at Zerolab focus on one or multiple aspects of the company’s operation, including but not limited to:
- Develop promotional plans for circulating leather, both digitally and physically.
- Create social media campaigns to capture Zerolab’s mission, track engagement, and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing ideas in real-time across social channels.
- Research and develop partnerships and promotional opportunities across digital channels to raise awareness of Zerolab’s mission.
- Research, outreach, and follow-up for the international press, collaborators, and business opportunities.
- Preparing rescued leather inventory for reuse and resale, learning Amazon and other online channels for reselling leather excess.
- Working within a team to get leather inventory online, and represented in a way that can drive interest.
Students must commit to a minimum of 120 hours, maintain a daily journal of activities and learning outcomes, and submit a term paper. Students earn 3 to 6 credits for INT 499 Professional Internship.
