Design & technology in ‘critical decline’ in UK schools but will the next government act?

It’s a well-evidenced trend that affects school-age education right through to university undergraduate degrees and beyond.

While the government has been flying the flag for gaming, film and TV and the value of the UK creative industries as an export, it’s also been cutting off their talent stream at source.

Although the Conservative government advocates for apprenticeships as a pathway to the creative industries, it’s been neglecting another that’s right in front of it: school-age design education for 11-18-year-olds. The separate subjects of design and technology and art and design are suffering.

Over the last 10 years, the number of D&T teachers has halved and the number of UK D&T GCSE entries sat by 16-year-olds has fallen by 68%.

It doesn’t take a huge leap of faith to see that this could be bad for the creative industries at large. Creative problem-solving skills and critical thinking are in demand and if the very idea of studying it is being snatched away from tomorrow’s creative industry professionals, it paints a rather grim picture.

Successive Conservative governments have backed science, technology, English and maths at GCSE and A Level, which means today arts in general are being overlooked.

What can be done?

Now the case for Design and Technology is being taken up by a consortium of backers including The Institution for Engineering and Technology, Design Business Association and RIBA, steered by the Design Council in a document called A Blueprint for Renewal, which is being aimed at policymakers, having found the subject to be in “critical decline.”

The objective of the document is to encourage reform but it also points to the government’s disingenuous approach to design education, set out in its Creative Sector Vision, where concern for a fall in D&T numbers is highlighted without showing how this might be addressed.

There are many ways to trumpet the value of design and technology, not least that it represents the apex of science and technology as a subject and is rooted in solving real-world problems. The policy document aims to appeal to whoever will form the next government by encouraging them to initially stop the exodus of teachers and students from the subject before, by the end of their tenure, creating the conditions to make design “the jewel in the crown” of a “reimagined” British education system. In this scenario, core skills are developed that encourage creative problem-solving, technical knowledge, material intelligence, critical thinking and making.

How will change be achieved?

A four-pronged strategy is proposed to create long-term engagement and change. The D+T subject will need to be overhauled so that it’s aligned with innovation and sustainability challenges for 11-18 year-olds. That would mean those sitting A-Levels also stand to benefit.

Meanwhile, a funded strategy for D&T teacher recruitment, training and retention will need to be developed while ensuring that D&T is considered part of school accountability, performance and inspection measures. According to the recommendations, design would also need to be placed “at the heart” of a reformed creative curriculum.

Design woven across the curriculum

Crucial to this reformed curriculum is not just the overhaul and preservation of D&T and art, craft and design, but also design being practiced as a “foundational skill for life.” To this end, recommendations are being made that skills from D&T should be woven across the curriculum. In other subjects, design-based challenges would be introduced to liven them up by allowing students to apply creative, hands-on problem-solving to real-world issues. This is effectively design thinking, the likes of which are practiced by many successful businesses today.

The contempt shown by the current administration to the creative industries would almost be funny if it wasn’t so bleak. Remember this campaign? As we stand on the cusp of an election, the policy recommendation is a poignant reminder that the way design and technology is taught in schools can be a means to equip young people with the skills they need for the creative industries and the world at large.