The Prime Minister has appointed 11 new members to the CST. This process was made in accordance with the rules of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The CST is the UK Government’s top-level advisory body on science and technology policy issues.
The coalition Government’s education reform agenda impacts on design education that underpins so much of the UK’s industrial and commercial activity potentially damaging our industry and our prosperity as a world class leader.
The impact of such reforms such as the National Curriculum review of Design & Technology (D&T) threatened with being removed as a compulsory subject for all pupils from age 5 to 14 is worrying. The English Baccalaureate is already skewing the curriculum in many schools away from creative and technical subjects towards traditional, academic subjects. Cuts in higher education for non STEM subjects – effectively a 40% cut for all art and design courses – whose survival will be dependent on funding from students paying fees using money they are forced to borrow will separate the design sector by the financial ability to bankroll educational training. This is an already under-financed sector for design innovation. Undergraduates do see financial reward in studying abroad and in my opinion, if we are able to provide a superior teaching mechanism, for a fair price, that is also competitive within Europe then we have restored balance with the governing state; the European Union.
The UK’s creative and manufacturing industries are internationally considered as the jewel in Britain’s crown. Many fear the proposed system, which produced it and sustains it, will be cut off by these proposals. SBID will continue to protect the interests of our members and the interests of the wider design industry both through government and the Bank of England.
To achieve this, SBID entered into an agreement with the department for schools for design and technology to provide authoritative direction as a bridge for school children in the 5-14 year old age group to communicate with those working in the industry through SBID members and SBID research groups.
The Government have increased funding to over £1.4 billion, sufficient to train 360,000 apprentices in the 2011-12 academic year across all sectors. Overall, the latest statistical first release data shows that the Government will deliver at least 250,000 more apprenticeship places over the lifetime of this Parliament than the previous Administration had planned. It is our intention at SBID to ensure that we lobby for a fair proportion of that investment to be directed into the creative industries to drive the design economy back to growth.
A great platform to help raise awareness for children’s learning needs is providing CPDs which we will do for three months at Technopop ( http://www.technopop.co.uk) launching on 11th of November 2013 with 22,000 students already enrolled it is clear that it will be a national success. The festival is hosted on the Olympics park site and opens for business in March 2014.
