I had the great honour of speaking on a panel about the future of design education in Ireland. The panel was made up of the above speakers (John Paul Dowling stood in for Alex Milton), and the discussion centred around many topics including education policy, industry links to education, hiring graduates and graduate preparedness and where education can inform these areas.
The audience was a good mix of students and industry eager to join in the debate. This is the beauty of Offset, the audience can join right with the discussion. There was some great advice from Susan for 'soon to be grads' around looking for the best opportunities when looking at jobs specs. Both herself and Ciaran advised grads to go ahead and apply for jobs that are interesting, to have confidence in your abilities, even if you don't have all the skills required of the post. John Paul advised to carefully select that first role. As your grace period of being a 'graduate' runs out quickly so make the most of the first position. While my advice was simple. If you are in a design role and there is no one in the studio better than you... LEAVE! You cannot learn from an empty studio or one with no hierarchy to advance.
There were of course a plethora of other topics discussed, far to many to mention here. But the important thing is that the dialogue and discussion is happening. Design education and the design industry is a rapidly changing sector and its future is constantly shifting.
Tune in to the full discussion which will be added to the archive in the coming months.