‘Design’ among today’s top career choices after ALs
AOD offers guaranteed pathways to careers in fashion, animation, graphic design and interior design as industries look to recruit more and more qualified designers
Every decade or so, the careers that are demanded by industries change. For example, although marketing was not considered a prestigious career in the past, during the first few years of this millennium the need for clever marketers prompted businesses to hire qualified marketing professionals: This changed the career landscape and encouraged more youth to pursue marketing careers while marketing started to get regarded among the top career choices; a trend that continues to date. Similarly, we are at a time when the career landscape in Sri Lanka is again changing as the needs of the business world change. A new career path emerging from the most current needs of industry is ‘design’.
Today, designers are in high demand by almost all businesses. This is because creatively thought out services and products are today’s best sellers and this essential touch is delivered only by designers. Whether it is being a fashion designer for the country’s massive apparel business, a successful packaging designer for tea exports, a high-paid interior designer for the hotel industry or an animation artist in television, the design careers presented today are as diverse as they are rewarding. Therefore, ‘design’ is now considered to be among the best career choices after ALs. However, there are many questions and concerns regarding following a design career that many would like answered. Speaking to the principal of Sri Lanka’s celebrated design educator AOD- British design expert Karen MacLeod, many of these questions and concerns were ironed out.
A question that often arises is, whether one has to ‘be able to draw’ or have followed the Arts stream for ALs if they are to study design or become a designer. According to Karen MacLeod this is not the case. MacLeod states that ‘creativity’ is rather a way of thinking out of the box rather than a specific skill like drawing. “Drawing or the knowledge on art is not what determines whether you are a good designer. Design is about being able to think innovatively and tackle a problem in an extraordinary manner- this is actually what designers do. Drawing is among several skills such as software knowledge, history and contextual knowledge etc. which are actually secondary and taught by us once someone joins in as a design student. If you can think out of the box and look at the world in a different way, that’s all you need to start studying design: we teach the rest,” MacLeod stated.
How does one access design careers? What are the qualifications needed by a professional designer? Although selftaught designers or those with average diploma certificates were considered adequate in the past, in the recent times Sri Lanka has seen the advent of degree holding design graduates into the business world. This has raised the bar in terms of expectations and quality. This shift also marked the professionalisation of design as a serious career path with standard starting salaries etc. Karen MacLeod stated that a degree is now considered the standard qualification for a designer looking for a good career. Further, she stated the importance of design degrees baring relevance internationally; “Today, designers don’t necessarily work only on local projects in isolation. Designers need to have the ability to design for clienteles from anywhere in the world, especially as the biggest employers for design in Sri Lanka are often working with foreign markets such as in the case of apparel, tea export and tourism. This is why a degree that is in par with the rest of the world is considered essential.”
AOD, the design partner preferred by the government and industries of Sri Lanka, has set up a series of internationally recognised British design degrees to provide specialised professionals for the country. Offered in partnership with the prestigious Northumbria University UK, these degrees have been especially structured to feed qualified graduates directly into the biggest local industries that have the most demand for designers.
AOD principal Karen MacLeod stated that the five Northumbria UK degrees presented in Sri Lanka at AOD, were selected to complement the job demand from the major industries in Sri Lanka. “Education should deliver to the type of careers needed by the country. The degrees presented by AOD were all selected based on what Sri Lankan businesses need from ‘design’ and the creative roles they need fulfilled. This is one reason why AOD graduates are 100% employed; they are all very much needed by the business world.” She further described AOD’s partnership with Northumbria University to be a unique one; “Our partnership allows AOD students to graduate with the identical, 100% internal, complete design degrees as those conducted in the Northumbria campus in Britain; it’s a rare chance to get a UK degree close to home and qualify as a professional recognised anywhere in the world.”
The recently concluded design career focused event by AOD ‘Design Sense’ also offered a series of free workshops, career counselling sessions and exhibitions to educate the public on what is on offer for qualified designers in Sri Lanka. As the business world demands for more qualified designers and ‘design’ becomes known as one of the best career choices, AOD is continuing to offer free design career counselling at its campus in Colombo to help anyone interested in design to understand the prospects better. AOD is currently enrolling for its 2016 intake for the Northumbria UK design degrees in Fashion, Fashion Marketing, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Motion Graphics & Animation Design as well as Interior Design. For enrolments, free design career counselling, or to understand more about design careers walk in to AOD at 29, Lauries Road, Colombo 4 between 9am to 5pm. For more information, call AOD on 0775 980 141 / 0115 867 772 or email info@aod.lk. You can find out more about AOD on www.aod. lk or www.facebook.com/aodsrilanka