Delivering the Design Council’s Design Academy.

In her capacity as a Design Associate for Design Council, Lesley has been travelling the country over recent months from Sunderland to Portsmouth, involved in the delivery of the Design Council’s Design Academy, a training course for undergraduate design students at some of the UK’s leading universities.

Design Academy prepares students from a variety of design disciplines for private and public sector design challenges by developing their strategic design thinking capabilities.

“Design Academy is for design schools that:

Want to optimise student employability and versatility

Want to place greater emphasis on strategic design and design for innovation

Want to break down subject boundaries and enhance interdisciplinary practice

Want to provide students with enhanced leadership opportunities and promotional platforms

Want a competitive edge within a crowded market place

Want an affiliation with Design Council”

(Source: www.designcouncil.org.uk)

In Lesley’s words, “it’s a real privilege to be involved in this initiative from Design Council. Design is being taken increasingly seriously in boardrooms across the world, in small businesses, large businesses and in the public sector. Design Council are taking the initiative to prepare our future design practitioners to step up to the exciting challenges ahead and utilise their design approaches and processes in a strategic context. This is an exciting time for designers as they discover the scope of opportunities ahead”.

To find out more about Design Academy, visit http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/design-academy.