Design education is vitally important to the design industry and teaching design can be an alternative or complementary activity to working as a practicing designer. Many experienced designers combine industry practice with some education work.
At university level, lecturers in design-related studies often combine teaching with research projects. To hold a permanent, full-time lecturer’s post sometimes requires a PhD and teaching qualifications, but there are opportunities for designers to act as visiting lecturers at colleges and universities based on their own subject and experience. The more experience you have in a particular area, the more your expertise is likely to appeal to design course leaders.
For example, fashion and accessories designer Susannah Dowse was approached by Winchester School of Art to work as a visiting lecturer on its undergraduate fashion design course, building on her work launching the recycled clothing label TRAIDRemade for Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development (TRAID). She then went on to give some lectures in sustainable design at Portsmouth University.
Visiting lecturers are usually invited on the strength of their practice or theoretical experience to deliver a one-off talk or short project; this would usually not require a teaching qualification. But for more regular lecturing a teaching qualification and/or a PhD is likely to be desirable. Visiting lecturers may be appointed on the strength of portfolio and interview alone, although selected applicants would have to be willing to study for a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching if they don’t already hold one, advises Patricia Austin, director of the Creative Practice for Narrative Environments MA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
‘In terms of teaching design as a career, I would think the impending cuts in Higher Education funding will limit the opportunities, but I always like to keep fresh new voices appearing in the course and I do this mainly by bringing in visiting lecturers where possible. Even if they have only done a couple of days at Central Saint Martins they can still put it on their CV and that would improve their chances of getting a more substantial job elsewhere,’ says Austin.
At the secondary education level, design and technology teachers are currently in demand and special financial support is available during training – see the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) for more information.
Practicing designers can also gain teaching experience by contributing to – or instigating – education based collaborations within the community and in primary and secondary schools.