In September 2014, Icsid focused on sharing resources and providing advice from experts on how to land the industrial design job of your dreams. At the beginning of the month, an opinion poll was launched asking eNews readers about the value of internships as they provide valid work experience for students looking for employment after graduation. The results of the opinion poll were in favour of including professional internships into curricula: 88% of people voted to make them mandatory, 10% of respondents voted for it to be optional and only 2% said ‘No’ to this opportunity.
To probe deeper into the subject, Icsid asked some of its Educational Members to comment on the results of September’s opinion poll and to answer a few additional questions. The responses are below:
Prof. Vincenzo Iavicoli
Chair of Product Design Department
College for Creative Studies
Q: What is your opinion about including internship to the programme curriculum?
It should be optional. It will give students an incentive to be more proactive in shaping their career path.
Q: Does your school currently have an internship programme? Is it mandatory or optional?
Yes, at CCS we have internship program, and students can take internships for credits up to 6 credits (2 classes). It is optional, however is strongly recommended and supported; our students in the Product Design Department are aware that to be competitive they must have multiple internships in their resume.
Q: Do you think these results echo a new educational standard?
Definitely yes. Expectations are going up and the educational standards need to be tuned continuously to be competitive.
Q: Will this create better and/or more well rounded designers?
Definitely yes! Internships are fundamental to prepare successful graduates, capable to be immediately valuable in the design profession and flexible to manage evolving market demands.
Dr. Thomas Garvey
Director, School of Industrial Design
Carleton University
Q: Does your school currently have an internship programme? Is it mandatory or optional?
Our BID has a required 3-month internship to graduate. The normal process is to complete the internship between 3rd and 4th year and then submit a report in the fall of the 4th year. About 50% of the students continue on for an additional year in the internship position and thus take an extra year between 3rd and 4th. We keep an archive of reports to share with other students, and a database (for the last 2 years) of salaries and points of contact in the companies.
For more information, refer to the School’s programme.
Q: Do you think these results echo a new educational standard? Will this create better and/or more well rounded designers?
This has always been an important part of our educational standard at Carleton. The internship experiences definitely broadens the student understanding of their place in the profession and almost always raises the level of the 4th year work as a result. Each semester I speak to students in the year before internship, accompanied by 4-5 recently returned interns from a diversity of experiences and countries. This year for example, we also have a lecture in the fall from a very successful alumnus on self-branding and portfolio development for seeking work – for internships and final year students.
Dr. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa
Professor, Department of Industrial Design
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Q: Does your school currently have an internship programme? Is it mandatory or optional?
Yes we have an internship programme, and it is expected that all students are attached to a designer or design firm as part of what we call ‘Work Integrated Learning’ and ‘Cooperative Education’ so as to complement our didactic and pedagogical offerings ; and
Q: Do you think these results echo a new educational standard? Will this create better and/or more well rounded designers?
Yes, we believe that it is important to test design theory through practice, and to augment knowledge through a decidedly pragmatic ‘participatory action research’ mode of enquiry. This in our view produces a more rounded design graduate who is able to link relevant theory and research with practical know-how.
