Cher David
Now that I understand better the nature and context of your query, I would
like to add the following precision to my earlier post. You were right
indeed, the brief account I gave of my training years experience was not
the kind of information you are looking for.
You asked the list to tell you "What does anyone know about the use of
apprentice schemes in design education?" And "a secondary question might
look at what anyone thinks about these schemes?" This post is a tentative
response to this second question, as a view of someone who, indeed, has
never experienced apprenticeship.
During my training years at L'École de design industriel at l'Université de
Montréal, I did not go through a apprenticeship. And the experience I
referred to was not a placement scheme either, as you might have wrongly
perceived in my post. As I said, it was rather a sort of a tentative,
unstructured 'participant observation', something somewhere between
apprenticeship and placement...
Having thus cleared up the issue, what I now think more relevant, and I
wish you would enlighten us on this after compilation of all the answers to
your query, is the different ways to, as Don says, bridge the gap between
research and practice through education of designers.
There seems often to be too much confusion in the practice of design
education: what is the kind and level of design is taught at which level of
formal (or informal??) education system? By education system I here mean:
vocational (technical) vs academic (research), and not general (public)
education that we may comment upon at another occasion.
Of course, by definition, those involved in vocational training are not
supposed to engage into research. Likewise, those involved in research at
University level are normally not expected to go through (technical)
apprenticeship. And yet, I am under the impression (until proven otherwise)
that in several design teaching institutions, while all claiming to train
'practionners', one finds some sorts of unclear mixture, necessarily
wanting, of both research and practice. Some of those institutions are
called École/School/Department of Design and they are nested within
University contexts even though they are clearly vocational. Other are
located near a University campus, and they are called Institut
supérieur/Higher Technical School of Design, clearly vocational in their
orientation and yet claiming to conduct research.
Since you are a University Academic involved in research on apprenticeship,
I hope there will be in your report a chapter clarifying this issue of what
ought to be taught and how, at which level of (formal) design education.
Bon courage !
Francois
Montreal
On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 11:57 AM, David Balkwill <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I've been referring to the French apprenticeship scheme, without giving
> you any detail.
>
> See below for the text from the Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique who are
> leading in this approach, taking the apprentice scheme through three phases
> up to Master level.
>
> Let me know if anyone wants any more information, or if this reminds you
> of anything else from other countries. So far I'm only picking up on
> placement and internships, no formal apprenticeships.
>
> Regards
>
> David Balkwill
>
> Course Leader and Senior Lecturer Product Design
> Manchester Metropolitan University
> School of Engineering
>
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