Think back to your school days. I have two questions for you. Firstly, how was creativity promoted in your school? Was it valued and promoted on a par with academic subjects, or was it viewed as a ‘nice to have’ entity, a kind of release from some of the ‘more serious work’?
My second question is: when you were studying a range of subjects at school (for GCSE, for example), what effort did the teachers make to explain why you were learning the content presented to you and how it might be useful to you in life and work thereafter?
I host a podcast where I talk with professionals across a range of creative sectors (Designed for Life - shamelessly promoted). So many have told me they loved design and technology at school but only realised late (sometimes at university) that they could make a living from designing, solving ‘real-world’ problems, modelling and prototyping, and thinking creatively. Activities they had, up until the moment of revelation, thought were an interesting pastime, a hobby perhaps, but no more.
Yet when you take design, engineering and manufacturing together, these sectors contribute a conservative £530 million to UK GDP and employ somewhere between 1:4 and 1:5 of the UK working population. I think you will agree that these figures make them more than an interesting pastime, something to fill the quiet hours; they make design, engineering and manufacturing a mainstay of the UK economy.
The decline of D&T
So why, in recent years, have we seen the decline of design and technology education in our schools nationally? Some figures here might help: In 2009, the subject saw almost 306,000 GCSE entries nationally; last year, this figure was 79,000.
In 2009, the subject had just over 15,500 trained D&T teachers in service in schools; we (The Design & Technology Association) currently estimate this number to be around 6,300.
Given this rapid decline, it is perhaps not so surprising that we are failing to prepare and motivate our young people to pursue careers in these sectors. If we combine the engineering and manufacturing sectors, there have been over 50,000 vacancies at any given time over the past year. Demand for apprenticeships far outstrips supply, with an estimated ratio of 145:1. The design pipeline is also strangled, with a 68% reduction in students studying design at GCSE level; this at a time when design is seeing a strong resurgence in businesses worldwide.
What's the point of it all?
As an ex-secondary headteacher, I find myself asking, given these figures, the simple question: what’s the point of school? What is it for? What is its purpose? After much consideration over the years, I take my lead from Professor Guy Claxton, who states, “The purpose of education is to prepare young people for the future. Schools should be preparing young people to develop the capacities they will need to thrive in a fast-moving society”.
In my view, education and business have been disconnected for too long. From experience, I know the best way to engage a reluctant 15-year-old is to show them where their learning could lead. Many industry leaders now recognise, if only out of self-interest, that they need to engage with pre-16 education to raise their profile and help young people see careers in their companies as a real possibility. Teachers do not always have a clear understanding of business and industry, and they can be hard to reach. At the same time, business leaders often have limited time and resources and may be unsure how to achieve measurable results from the investment they make.
Looking to the future
Encouragingly, this conversation is already beginning to move from theory into practice. The Design & Technology Association has begun launching the first of a new network of regional hubs, which bring together schools, teachers and employers, initially across Bristol, Avon and Gloucestershire. The launch took place on 1 May this year beneath Concorde at Bristol Aerospace (a reminder, if it was needed, that every engineer, designer and innovator starts somewhere).
The ambition is simple: to reconnect classrooms with the industries they feed, helping more young people see that creativity, problem-solving and making things are not hobbies or sidelines, but the foundations of some of the most important and rewarding careers in the UK economy.
This is where the D&TA come in. Our new ‘movement’ (so much more than an initiative) aims to create learning communities where business and education work hand in hand for mutual benefit for the economy, for creativity, for the student.
Find out more about The Design & Technology Association.
