This guide has focused on formal training courses, but there are many other routes to skills development.
It may sound obvious, but a scout around upcoming conferences, seminars, galleries and exhibitions relevant to your industry could be really useful. We all know that inspiration, techniques and ideas come from all sorts of places, but we seldom take the time out to look for them.
Networking – sharing ideas with and seeking advice and support from peers – is another informal way to further your knowledge and experience.
Mentors
Another semi-formal way of learning is through a mentoring scheme.
The Design Council’s NextNet mentoring pilot programme teamed up mid-level designers with experienced, senior figures in the industry. These confidential mentoring meetings were supported by training sessions, lectures and away days.
The scheme provided insight from a number of angles. Experts offered lots of resources for helping with the more pragmatic, practical aspects of making things happen – from office psychology, to deconstructing “good strategy” into its components. Because we spend so much time and energy doing what we do, it’s easy to lose sight of how to evolve. While some of the things I learned will help me to do the job I'm doing now, the most memorable aspects of the programme remind me of the need and means to evolve and progress. Gavin Maguire, Senior designer, Engine
If you are thinking of looking for a mentor, consider how close to your own discipline you would like your mentor to be.
As graphic designer Julia Woollams found out during the NextNet scheme, a mentor whose experience lies in a very different area might not be the most suitable. She also notes that in a small business most employees are likely to work alongside senior staff and directors, gaining ‘on-the-job’ mentoring in the process.
Designers in larger companies, on the other hand, may not benefit from such daily proximity to experienced designers and so may find a mentoring programme even more valuable.
I’m in a small design consultancy with a fairly flat structure, where I work alongside my boss. So I see how he leads and presents on a regular basis. I think the cross-discipline mentoring was much more useful to the mentees who came from large companies, particularly from in-house design departments, where they are used to structured hierarchies, and therefore don't deal directly with their bosses day-to-day. Julia Woollams, Designer, Johnson Banks
Following the NextNet mentoring pilot programme the UK Design Skills Alliance produced Mentoring tomorrow's design leaders, a free step-by-step guide to mentoring, available to download for free from the Design Council website.
In conclusion
The particular strengths and weaknesses of any given consultancy or staff team will determine which types of training would be most suitable and beneficial, although there’s almost always room for some improvement in staff skills.
Of course, developing business and professional skills is not something everyone can do constantly – there’s neither the time nor the money. But a carefully prepared training programme could really boost the effectiveness of a design business, creating better relationships with clients, improved interdisciplinary collaboration and better staff retention to boot.