Practicing Design Erasmus Project

Project Title

Practicing Design

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project Practicing Design is promoting work based learning and development of transversal and entrepreneurial skills in the design education by developing and testing an innovative training programme. The aim of the project is to find new and innovative design education practice in order to bridge the gap between education and professional working and to upgrade designers’ skills necessary for the better socio-economic outcomes.
The main project output is Design Training Programme that fosters the development of transversal skills and promotes the take-up of practical entrepreneurial experiences. This programme can be implemented in a curricula of Design Faculties or as a VET course through sectors’ associations and vocational organisations in the context of life-long learning and up-skills of young professionals.
Practicing Design project is an international collaborative venture of three European vocational design organizations: Croatian Designers Association (Croatia), designaustria (Austria), Public Room (Macedonia); two educational institutions: VERN’ University of Applied Sciences (Croatia), Faculty of Art and Design, European University – Republic of Macedonia; two business companies: Prostoria d.o.o. (Croatia) and Zavar d.o.o.(Macedonia). The project involves range of experts from partners’ organizations: professional designers, design managers, design and economy professors from design academies and faculties, business managers, PR experts and marketing and sale managers.
The professional design sector in most Balkan countries does not have developed quality VET systems, and analyses show that design professionals don’t have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to run successful businesses or necessary skills to communicate effectively with the business sector. Regional Higher Education Institutions share the similar problems as the European ones: students emerging from design higher education institutions do not possess the necessary skills for employment.
The final output of the first phase of the project is the theoretical and empirical study Rethinking Design Education. The main purpose of this study was to detect skills and knowledge needed to improve employability that are not provided by existing design curricula. Through identification of the main challenges facing the design practice and education in the 21st century and through empirical research of the existing skills discrepancy in design curricula in Croatia, Austria, and Macedonia, the study provided guidelines as a framework for the second output of the project – Design Training Programme 1.0.
The idea behind Practicing Design Training Programme 1.0 is to help young design professionals to overcome the lack of experience of working on real projects within production industry. It creates the educational opportunity that addresses the problem of lacking business skills and practical design skills through a simulation of professional, real life design practice. In this way the training programme helps young design professionals to include necessary communication and business components into the corresponding phases of the design process. Therefore, the training programme integrates the development of cross-disciplinary and transversal knowledge, skills and competencies related to design, entrepreneurship, social, business and management topics. At the same time, the programme serves as an educational platform for the managers of production companies, who will through a participatory and inclusive process, gain knowledge about the main phases of a design process, developed through the training programme content and the mechanisms of its realisation.
The impact of the two-year project and its long-term benefits for the participating organisations are that they can implement the developed Design Training Programme as a new product, which can enhance the quality and relevance of their educational offer. In the long run the project enables the mentioned organisations to position themselves as relevant stakeholders in international discussions about design education.
Among other achievements, the project helps establishing a framework for regional cooperation between Austria, Croatia and Macedonia and is addressing the strategic regional policy objectives of SEE 2020 strategy for job creation and development of the creative economy in the Balkan countries, www.rcc.int. Since design sector has growth potential in the context of growing creative industry the objective of increasing efficiency of design education and of delivering the right skills for employment must play a key role in design education. Thus the project is addressing the challenge of building design skills for the 21st century.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 199582,33 Eur

Project Coordinator

HRVATSKO DIZAJNERSKO DRUSTVO & Country: HR

Project Partners

• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• Zavar Company DOO Skopje
• Evropski Univerzitet – Republika Makedonija, Skopje
• ZDRUZENIE ZA KULTUREN I EKOMSKI RAZVOJ I POVRZUVANJE JAVNA SOBA SKOPJE
• Prostoria d.o.o.
• DESIGNAUSTRIA (DA)
• VELEUCILISTE VERN