Web design education

Web Design Education

• Originally written on 25th August 2011.

I’ve noticed a few articles very recently talking a lot about web design education. As usual, they’ve been painting this in a particularly negative light.

Web design education is a topic that’s close to my heart. I believe I received one of the best design educations available to me in the UK, so it irks me when I see people tarring the whole of the design education industry with the same brush.

I’m in a balanced position, as I’ve seen design education from both sides: I’ve been taught, and now I teach. I’m a part-time lecturer, so I can see the situation from both sides.

Instead of sitting behind my keyboard and moaning about the state of design education, I pull up my sleeves and get involved with it.

Expecting the best, but doing nothing about it

If we’re to continually expect the best, latest, and most thorough knowledge from design students, we need to be imparting this knowledge to design students, educators, and institutions.

The ridiculous situation of employers moaning about students not having the required knowledge but doing nothing about it helps nobody. Helping these students is key. If your local web design course is less than what you’d hope it to be, get involved with the damn thing.

Trust me, education is crying out for industry professionals to get involved.

Our industry’s best interests

People in our industry keep banging on about us being in a golden age. There’s almost daily innovations in the web design world at the minute, and that’s really cool.

In order to really thrive with talent in the UK, we need to keep bringing up well-educated, well-grounded, educated individuals through the design agencies that scatter this country.

Whether you’re an employer, employee, or freelancer, it’s in all of our best interests, no, in our industry’s best interests to make sure we’re helping our web design education, not burning bridges with it by indiscriminately slagging it off.