Back to Uni for the Aetha design team to talk about Product Design placements

Tom (our Founder) graduated from Bournemouth in 2009 with a BSc in Product Design so it is only right that we return there to speak annually to the current design students as a way of giving back and hopefully inspiring the future local design community.We were asked to give a talk by Bournemouth University on the importance of placement years and how a year in industry can help a designer in their creative development as well as personally development.This morning, Tom and Dan went along to give a presentation to the 2nd year design students about the importance of placements within the design industry and gave them some tips on their portfolio and how to apply for a design placement. Both Tom & Dan completed placement years while at University studying Product Design. Dan did his while at Loughborough Uni, while Tom did his during his time at Bournemouth.Dan explained that his placement was invaluable as it made him realise that "the skills I was learning at University, people actually were willing to pay for in the real world so it made me realise that I should listen to everything and absorb as much as possible while in lectures and the workshop."Both believe that their placement years were really crucial to their overall University experience and prepared them well for graduating and getting their first jobs out of Uni within the design industry. "Learning on the job was far more valuable than learning in a classroom for me," says Tom. "Of course with design, both experiences go hand in hand as you have to have the knowledge in order to use certain software and workshop equipment but I know I learned a lot of personal and translatable skills during that placement period which I may not have learned while at University."We have strong links with Bournemouth University and The Arts University Bournemouth. Both are fantastic Universities and fully support design and innovation. We are always working with the AUB and their fantastic Innovation team in their workshop. They also put on and organise a lot of evening classes  which are open to local businesses/individuals. Great if you want to learn a new skill alongside working full time.We encourage design students to get in touch with local businesses to see if they can learn from them. It is more often than not that designers want to share their experiences and help those trying to do better for the whole of design. We are hoping to do an open evening in the New Year where we invite people (anyone interested in design who is interested in developing a product in the future ) to our studio workshop to have a chat and some advice. If you are interested in coming along, please email us hello@aethadesign.com and we will pop you on the invite list.