Product/industrial design: Your skills

Product/industrial design courses teach theoretical and practical skills in the design area. They often combine creativity with technology and will provide you with a broad knowledge of production methods and materials.

As well as these subject-specific skills, you will also learn other transferable skills that are valued by employers in many sectors.

Examples of these skills include:

• presentation skills - including presentations to your fellow students, as well as planning and setting up visual displays at exhibitions;
• communication skills - written, oral and visual. These can be developed through oral and visual presentations and team projects. You are likely to be dealing with critiques of your own work and possibly that of your fellow students;
• commercial and entrepreneurial skills - you may be involved in initiating and developing small-scale business ideas and producing actual products or services to sell. This will involve skills in cost effectiveness, marketing and production management;
• problem-solving skills - the ability to analyse a problem and to produce a creative solution;
• using your initiative and working independently (on occasions);
• teamworking skills - while some projects may require you to work alone, others will be centred around teamwork and group design and management;
• general IT skills, plus specialised skills such as computer-aided design (CAD). CAD is one of the key tools used by designers and can be used in a range of settings.