COMMENT AND OPINION | Toby Griffin
OPINION
TOBY GRIFFIN
There is no shortage of jobs for designers in the KBB industry but few dedicated educational courses. Designer thinks it’s time to change that and suggests some ways in the interim to make sure we get our fair share of the graduating talent
Making your own connections with these [educational] institutions [by]
offering internships and work
experience will put your business front- and-centre when it comes to picking the best graduates each year
Both seemed to be pretty well represented by courses across the country, and yet I wondered if this reflected the real career opportunities that their qualifications would give them. It was time to do a bit of research. Using the recruitment website Indeed, I searched for open vacancies in the UK, and came up with the following results:
I
Interior designer – 1,024 Interior architect – 561 KBB designer – 1,038
Interesting. I then looked at the number of courses available, and using the UCAS website, found out the following:
Interior design – 167 Interior architecture – 66
KBB design – 1 (Bucks New University) Using these figures, it was therefore possible to calculate the number of live vacancies for each current course: Interior design – 6.1 Interior architecture – 8.5 KBB design – 1,038
So, what can be done about this? Creating a new academic discipline of KBB design – or perhaps room design would be a better catch-all term – will take a concerted effort to achieve. While I applaud and support those trying to achieve this, I want quicker results. I’ve spoken to a few local interior architecture students recently, and read some of the course curricula, and it is shocking how there is not a mention of room design, let alone any coverage of kitchens, bathrooms or bedrooms. In fact, I’ve been told that they’re banned from using the word ‘room’, as they must instead use ‘space’. In addition to pursuing our own courses specifically in KBB design, we could also look to infiltrate and put
t was very interesting to read the article in last month’s edition focusing on training and education in the industry, and it got me thinking about the two industries that are most closely aligned to that of our own – interior architecture and interior design.
pressure on our local colleges and universities to include KBB in their courses – the same would go for interior design and architecture, too. Armed with the understanding that a graduate will have a relatively greater chance of a successful career in the KBB industry, there is a moral and professional imperative for the course leaders to listen, even if they do seem to turn their nose up at first.
Making your own connections with these institutions – including offering internships, work experience, assistance on project setting and assessment, CAD advice, etc – will not only create a subtle, but tangible, shift in focus towards KBB design, but also provide some great PR opportunities. It will put your business front-and-centre when it comes to picking the best of the graduates from the courses each year. That’s a win-win-win situation. Taking a step back, though, the situation on education and training is unfortunately another symptom of our fragmented industry. Without cohesion, unity of purpose, collective lobbying of government departments, collective pressure on educational institutions, our individual efforts are easily dismissed and undermined.
The early bird… is annoying!
Punctuality is one of the most simple, basic characteristics that we all use to measure courtesy and professionalism.
All of us in our industry need to be at certain places at certain times: designers visiting clients, reps visiting their retailers, candidates coming for interview, colleagues coming together for a meeting. But, perhaps on the assumption of making a good impression, it seems to me some
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people arrive early, as if this increases their virtuosity as a result. To me, arriving early is as rude as arriving late.
We are all busy people and I for one am non- stop throughout the day. The time preceding an agreed meeting has been allocated to perform and complete a set task that needs to be done. Without the benefit of a reception area and staff, the early arriver has now interrupted your
concentration and floats around in a polite, but distracting, manner. Now, I understand that the nature of multiple calls during a day and inconsistent traffic means that journey times can be difficult to predict, but it is simply a case of sitting in the car, and catching up on phone calls and e-mails until the time has come. This goes too for visiting clients as a designer, as I wouldn’t dream of arriving early at an appointment, as it feels pushy and impolite. So be punctual, but be neither early nor late. That way everyone is happy.
kbbr
kbbr kbbreview · August 2019
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