Designing Your Future - Inspiring Careers

A set of interviews with people in key roles in different areas of the design, creative and engineering sectors, aimed at inspiring students to consider career choices and value D&T as a key component in developing the skills and knowledge required.

Take a look at this set of videos to inspire career choices for students in the design, engineering, creative, manufacturing and digital sectors and to recognise the value of a Design and Technology education in achieving success and inspiring decisions to enter in these areas.

Our thanks to the ERA Foundation and the Royal Commission of 1851 for their generous support in helping us develop these resources and to the participating organisations and individuals.

  • Seb is a Junior Design Engineer at Prodrive where he works in a small team designing and problem solving for the motor sport industry. He describes how D&T, and CAD in particular, helped give him the hands-on experience that helped him in his career.
  • Vicky is a Senior Computer Games Designer at Rebellion. She talks about skills such as working with others to develop ideas and learning about perspective and the importance of the links between the engineering and creative sides in the industry.
  • Abi works as a Design Apprentice Engineer at Prodrive where she designs fixtures for high performance cars. She describes her education experience and route into her current role and being inspired by the changing nature of technology in engineering.
  • Luke is Engineering Programme Manager at Engineers Without Borders UK where the focus is on providing engineering solutions that work for users in ways appropriate to their needs and environments. He discusses the wider value of engineering and how emerging technologies can be used to shape the future.
  • Ben is Studio Design Lead at Rebellion. He describes his career and experience, the importance of planning, team working and communication and the wide diversity of activities in his role.
  • Francesca is a clothing and accessories designer at Prodrive. She works in a team designing clothing and merchandising, matched to the bespoke colours and styles in the cars. She enjoys travelling with the role and meeting clients, but particularly seeing her designs in final products in the shops.
  • Rabia works as a Business Development Researcher at Engineers Without Borders UK. Her favourite school subjects (art and Maths) led her into design engineering. She describes how engineering acts as a means of providing solutions to seemingly impossible problems and its value in making a real impact on people’s lives.
  • Joe is a design manager at kitchenware design studio Black+Blum, specialising in designing and developing sustainable products, from the initial design phase right up to manufacture, working with suppliers and solving any issues. He enjoys the focus on user needs and his experience of studying D&T at school has helped in understanding the whole process.
  • Duncan is a designer at Echo Brand Design. His main focus is on branding and packaging, and he enjoys working as part of a team in developing designs and final products. Design and technology has been important to him from an early age and he values working with brands and being able to influence how companies use sustainability in their products.
  • Clare is a graphic designer and packaging designer at Echo Brand Design. She enjoys the challenge of the creative process and how teamwork can help influence and develop design decisions.
  • Adam is a design manager at Black+Blum in London. He designs, develops and manages the manufacture of eco-conscious food and drink containers. A large focus there is on sustainability, in the choice of materials and construction. Adam did D&T GCSE and A Level and sees problem-solving as central to design and the value of the transferable skills he has learned in developing as a designer.

Further videos  can be found in our "Designing Your Futures" playlist on our You Tube channel. The videos are also available on D&TTV.

These videos are ideal for use in lessons, for remote teaching, options events and simply to inspire your students and their parents to consider a wide variety of careers that is open to them

What teachers say

“These videos are really professional; excellent to see and pitched right with great visuals, snappy responses and short overall length.”

“Fresh, interesting, short… young people… I love them.”

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Design and Technology (D&T) is the inspiring, rigorous and practical subject which prepares all young people to live and work in the designed and made world.

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