How are your Illustrator and Photoshop Skills right our of school?

As an Instructor for students & seasoned Fashion Designers I would like to find out how you judge your skills. I am interested in how much you time your Fashion School dedicated to these skills.
Perhaps you could describe how the classes were structured?

For example:
* Years ago when I went to FIDM, I was taught Illustrator and Photoshop together in one class in only one semester.
I felt lucky that I had already been very familiar with both software and I had to help a lot of students with their work.
* Now my students at LATTC can take 2 classes and they are 16 weeks x 6 hours for each software.
*My private students get a Bootcamp version of what I teach in 10 hours one on one. this is also the base of my video classes that I offer.

Many students say that they forget quickly if they do not use their new learned skills for a couple of months.
What is your experience and how did it help or stop you from getting a job?