Couple who studied at Hawke's Bay's EIT to launch clothing line

Kelsi Thompson believes her graduate diploma in business from EIT has set up her career. Photo / Supplied

EIT graduate Kelsi Thompson has aspirations of working with her EIT design student husband in their own fashion label - using skills they've picked up at the Hawke's Bay tertiary provider.

Kelsi completed the Graduate Diploma in Business through EIT's School of Business last year and is now the communications advisor for the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce – a job she is loving.

"I am really using my qualification a lot. My role includes marketing, writing press releases, looking after social media and writing all the copy for our website.

"This is what I learned in my graduate diploma, and I am also learning a lot more on the job.

"My lecturer Russell Booth referred me to this role and was a great support in tailoring my resume to suit the role and helping me understand the unique skills I possess that make me a perfect fit for it."

Her husband Ashford Thompson is in his final year of a Bachelor of Creative Practice (Fashion) through EIT's IDEAschool, after which they plan to launch their clothing line – Thompson Thompson Clothing through the online platform Shopify.

"He's the creative brain and my theory was that if he can do all the creative stuff, why don't I do all the business and marketing, which is why I enrolled in the graduate diploma," she said.

"Covid-19 has had a significant impact on our timelines for our company. We intended to launch the business by the end of 2021, but there was a delay and then the outbreak earlier this year did not help things.

"We have a Shopify website built, but we just need to find some time for Ashford to put some products together to sell, and then we're going to push go on that."

Kelsi said her EIT programme was a "really positive experience".

"Coming back into study as an adult, having not written an essay in a decade was quite difficult, but I felt that I had a lot of support from my lecturers and fellow students."

A component of the graduate diploma programme is having work experience with a local business.