Real world skills for real-world working

At Inscape, we get you ready for the real world of work. Problem-solving isn’t just taught or discussed its practised. Through a custom blend of short to medium deadline-driven projects, we aim to develop graduates ready to tackle challenges from day one.

Design Praxis week at Inscape is a perfect example of a real-life working situation. For one week, each campus buzzes with imagination and ingenuity as groups of 1st and 2nd-year students work to complete a complex brief designed to stretch them creatively, emotionally and professionally. The brief for Design Praxis week usually focuses on conceptualisation, product development, marketing and the sale of a product for a specific client and set customers. The week fosters soft skills development; teamwork, empathy, resilience, patience, ownership, leadership, to name a few; often ignored in higher education that benefit students, particularly 1st years, during their studies and beyond. They also develop friendships that last a lifetime.

Design Praxis week takes place this year from the 11th to the 15th of March, so right from the beginning students to learn new skill sets that will stand them in good stead to be effective problem solvers in the workplace, able to think critically and with attention to detail. In this busy yet exciting week, students must work well in a team and think creatively under pressure. They need to present their ideas to a panel of judges and learn to take the constructive criticism that is given to them. Finally, they need to take that feedback and see their idea through to completion. Design Praxis give students a very good indicator of how things will be in the working world and specifically in the design industry.

In 2nd-year students take part in the 48 Hour Brief. A student competition that works together with leading organisations in their respective sectors to challenge students to respond with urgency. Students must present unique solutions that are relevant to the specified industry in the given timeframe, 48 hours. The winning ideas can then be implemented by these organisations. Our Ideation classes generally work with a representative from Standard Bank, while our Interior Design students work on a brief for Entrawood. Once again, this is a module where students learn vitally important skills that will inevitably increase their future employment opportunities.

In their third year, Inscape students must complete six weeks of Experiential training, also known as Work-integrated Learning. This is a period in the middle of a student’s third year where they need to find a company to ‘intern’ in. All the skills that our third-year students have learnt over the course of their Diplomas and Degrees, come into play when they find themselves in a design firm working on actual projects for clients. This first-hand experience and learning is a great precursor to working life after graduation. Sometimes our students even end up working for the companies they completed their in-service training with.

Prospective students can count on the fact that an Inscape qualification will prepare them for the world of work and opportunity. We see this time and time again with our Inscape Alumni and the amazing projects that they’re working on both locally and internationally.