Upskilling 1 million designers for green transition

The Design Council have announced a mission to upskill 1 million British designers in green design skills by 2030.  

Their ambition is to harness hosting the 2025 World Design Congress, as a catalytic moment with a lasting impact for the UK, with a mass upskilling legacy. 

Over the next 12 months, the Design Council will be convening education and training stakeholders and designers themselves to co-design what these green skills are and what the upskilling programme needs to look like.  

EngineeringUK is one of 20 organisations in the coalition behind the Blueprint for renewal: Design and technology education. The paper outlines recommendations for how to overhaul the current GCSE course which has been in decline since 2010 (67% drop in England since 2010). This is the first step in the plan to create the channels and environment for achieving 1 million upskilled designers for the future. 

The group also includes Design and Technology Association, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and National Society for Education in Art and Design, exam boards AQA, Pearson, OCR and creative bodies RIBA, Crafts Council and Design Business Association.
 

Minnie Moll, CEO of the Design Council said: 

“The World Design Congress in 2025 provides a rare opportunity for the UK government and design industry to show global leadership in harnessing the power of design for the green transition. Design is a core green skill. That is both ‘frontline’ design skills of using, and re-using, natural resources more efficiently, and indeed replenishing them, and ‘hearts and minds’ design skills, making regenerative lifestyles the easier, attractive and inclusive option.