The future of a successful career in design starts with a trailblazing force in education – AOD alumni parents affirm
As the post-COVID career landscape moves increasingly towards adaptability, and with industry heads realising that the case for investing in design is strong; who are the creative practitioners they’re now seeking out? The M-shaped designer: multi-disciplinary professionals with a broad range of skills, competencies, and knowledge; high-performance individuals with a global outlook that are able to reframe challenges into opportunities with ease.
These professionals aren’t shaped through the traditional textbook modes of teaching, however. They’re moulded through a constantly evolving future-focused international curricula - delivered by a faculty with a finger always on the pulse of shifting trends, and primarily, a trailblazing education institution that always puts the collective futures of its students first.
As proponents of innovation, the pioneering design institution in Sri Lanka -the Academy of Designoffers not just a diverse portfolio of internationally accredited and contemporary design degrees (BA (Hons) Fashion Design & Textile, BA (Hons) Fashion Design & Marketing, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture Design, BA (Hons) Visual Communication Design & BA (Hons) Motion Graphics & Animation), but also allows students to learn and develop strong multi-disciplinary capabilities while also unlocking their own unique potential.
Additionally, all of AOD’s fulltime, 3-year BA degrees are affiliated with the Northumbria University, UK –named University of the Year 2022 at the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Awards-, offering students not just a globally recognised degree, but also the option of completing the last year of their programme in the UK.
As a way of encouraging relations and connections between students and their potential employers, the university has over the years established strong links and official partnerships with other leading global universities and industry leaders. These collaborations have provided both students and graduates of AOD with invaluable opportunities to showcase their work and work closely with businesses across a broad spectrum of sectors, which shape the course of their creative futures.
A firm and well-rounded academic grounding paired with industry collaborations, is an equation that results in designers with lucrative and dynamic career opportunities, from working in different corporate sectors to being successful entrepreneurs or impactful social activists and many more.
Having seen their children grow into successful professionals in their 3-years at AOD, and carving out their own path ahead, many parents from the university’s ever-growing successful alumni community gladly testify to the well-rounded curriculum and unique education model of the design institution:
“Over the course of her degree programme at AOD my daughter was able to achieve a lot of things that I never thought was possible to accomplish – especially during the pandemic. I’m really proud of her because I know that if my daughter wants something she will do whatever it takes to achieve it, and I must say it was really easy for her to work towards her dreams and goals because of the dynamic and multidisciplinary education model at AOD. At AOD my daughter was able to learn from a dedicated faculty who were able to not just individually guide their students, but also instil in them the resilience to handle any situation. I feel really lucky that we chose AOD for her study.”-W.P. Deepa
Kumari Pathirana, Director of Dayarathna Corporation Pvt Ltd mother of Nawoda Bandara BA (Hons) Fashion & Textile Design Graduate 2022
“Enrolling our daughter at AOD was one of the best education decisions we have made for her, for the college has provided my daughter with more than we could have hoped for as parents. It is not merely a design education institution - it has also prepared her for the real world outside of college. AOD offers an excellent education with an emphasis on personality development, and we appreciate the lecturers’ efforts in giving individual attention to each student’s work; mentoring them until they’re able to step out on their own two feet. The university truly lives up to its promise of bringing out the best in each student and producing not only graduates but also completely independent and self-assured citizens. Our daughter truly enjoyed her time there, and we wish AOD every success .” - Anuradha Wickramasinghe, Chief People Officer at International Distillers Ltd and Mahesh Abeywickrama General Manager engineering at Energynet pvt ltd - parents of Kavya Mandakni Anthony - BA (Hons)Interior Architecture Design Graduate 2022.
AOD invites all A/L graduates and their parents to learn how investing in AOD’s future-forward education model, can also turn out to be the best decision they’ve ever made. Enrollments for the BA Design Degrees are open for this April Intake, for more information please contact AOD on 0775727772, email info@ aod.lk or walk in between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday – Colombo Innovation Tower, No 477, R. A De Mel Mawatha, Colombo www.aod.lk.