The UK's Design Council has announced a mass upskilling target to prepare one million designers for the green transition, starting with a call to reverse the "critical decline" in design and technology education.
Its plan to upskill one million designers by 2030 was launched last week at an event in London, in conjunction with a report titled A Blueprint for Renewal: Design and Technology Education.
The report, published by the Design Council together with a consortium of 20 leading design and education organisations, has launched a set of policy recommendations for a crucial revisal of the Design and Technology (D&T) GCSE course in the UK.
Design GCSE entries have fallen
The recommendations come at a time of decline in non-English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, which includes D&T as well as other non-academic subjects such as drama, dance, music and sport. The report states that over the past decade, British D&T GCSE entries have fallen by 68 percent, and the number of D&T teachers has more than halved.
"The fall in D&T has destabilised the whole subject area, masking steep declines in all art and design subjects and cutting off a vital pipeline for creative and engineering talent into industry," the report stated.
The report leads with four main recommendations. The first is to "refine and renew the D&T subject content for 11 to 18-year-olds, aligning it to inclusive innovation and sustainability."
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