Good Design Practice Creates a Thriving Design Industry

Leading designer David Worthington, Chair of the Design Skills Alliance, has appealed to designers to take urgent action to sort out their professional skills as new figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that only 8.9 per cent had received job-related training, compared to 15.7 per cent of architects and 16.2 per cent of civil engineers.

Worthington, who is Chair of Lloyd Northover Group, said "I believe that the UK design industry is the best in the world, but we must develop our professional skills for it to remain that way - and the sooner people start, the better."

To support this drive, the Design Council and Creative & Cultural Skills have created a comprehensive resource of tools, "how to" guides, professional development course listings and other information.

The aim is to raise the numbers of those accessing job-related training in the design industry to be more in line with comparable sectors such as architects.

Over three quarters of designers admit that what they lack most are business management skills; six in ten say they lack the skills to understand their client's business; and over forty per cent lack the verbal skills to help them communicate their ideas effectively, according to research carried out by the Design Council in 2005.