Design Council has published Designing a Future Economy, a study that presents a powerful picture about the value of design, with headlines including issues such as that skills shortages and gaps amongst those already working in design-skilled occupations costs the UK economy £5.9bn per year.
The Design Council writes:
Designing a future economy is Design Council’s 2017 report investigating the skills used in design, the link between these skills and productivity and innovation, and how they align with future demand for skills across the wider UK economy. It is an unprecedented study testing a new methodology as well as definitions of design. The report sets out what the design council believe can be done to reverse the decline from incorporating design into STEM subjects and improving support for design skills within career-long learning.
At a time when we are searching for answers to the productivity puzzle, this research provides direction and practical opportunities to change course. Our analysis shows that workers with design skills contribute over £209 billion in GVA to the UK economy and that people who use design skills are 47% more productive than the average UK worker, delivering almost £10 extra output per hour.
However, alongside the good news on design skills is evidence of an emerging skills gap twinned with a narrowing of the talent pipeline. The research finds that skills shortages and gaps amongst those already working in design-skilled occupations cost the UK economy £5.9bn per year. This is at a time when the number of students taking GCSE Design and Technology has fallen by 61% since 2000, and between 2011/12 and 2015/16, the number of people leaving higher education with undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications in creative arts and design subjects fell by 7%.
Why it matters: Stagnant productivity and growing automation are putting pressure on living standards and job security at the same time as the UK is planning its exit from the European Union. Whilst solving the UK’s productivity puzzle won’t be easy, we know that skills are crucial to economic performance.
In our 2015 Design Economy study we found that design workers are considerably more productive than the average UK worker and we wanted to better understand the role design skills might play in boosting the UK’s economic performance, particularly given the opportunities and challenges being brought by the fourth industrial revolution.
For the first time, Designing a future economy systematically maps the skills associated with design in the UK and measures the economic value those using these skills generate.
Headline findings:
- Design skills incorporate a knowledge of design tools and processes with a range of cognitive abilities like visualisation or problem solving and technical skills such as drawing, coding or modelling. The importance of these will vary depending on roles. By categorising the skills important to designers, we have been able to identify where these same skills are used by non-designers and measure the overall economic performance of design skills.
- 4 million people use design skills in their day-to-day work. Workers using design skills contribute £209bn to the UK economy (GVA).
- People who use design skills are 47% more productive than the average UK worker, delivering almost £10 extra per hour in GVA.
- 43% of workers using design skills are in jobs requiring and generating innovation, compared with an average for the wider UK workforce of just 6%.
- Skills shortages and gaps amongst those already working in design-skilled occupations costs the UK economy £5.9bn per year.
