This poster aims to present the complexity of teaching technology skills in the Creative Industries. Such complexity rises from an extensive range of disciplines and sectors that are heavily affected by digital technologies. Students are shaped by the culture of the institutions, which aim to provide students with the core skills that do not commonly enable students the digital competence within a standard. This is reflected in the perspective on their needs as students aiming to achieve different levels of specialty in their own sub-dsiscipline.

1. Delivering Technology Skills
in the Creative Industries
Javier Pereda
Liverpool John Moores University
This poster aims to present the
complexity of teaching technology
skills in the Creative Industries.
Such complexity rises from an
extensive range of disciplines and
sectors that are heavily affected
by digital technologies. Students
are shaped by the culture of the
institutions, which aim to provide
students with the core skills that
do not commonly enable students
the digital competence within a
standard. This is reflected in the
perspective on their needs as
students aiming to achieve differ-
ent levels of specialty in their own
sub-dsiscipline.
Introduction
The Creative Industries is a sector
that keeps on expanding, making
it difficult for institutions to keep
their curriculum up to date. The
UK government has defined the
Creative Industries as a sector
where creativity, skills and talent
are central to produce work (intel-
lectual property) for an economic
purpose (DCMS, 2016). The UK
Department for Culture, Media
and Sport has segmented the
Creative Industries into sectors
such as Design, Crafts, Architec-
ture and Interactive Leisure Soft-
ware among other, from these,
Design shows activities related to
Graphic Design, Fashion Design,
Crafts, Multimedia, Television,
Problem 1
Defining Core Skills
in the Creative Industries
Interactive Design, Manufacture,
Research and Prototyping (DCMS,
2016). Furthermore, Design is a
discipline which focuses primarily
on problem solving human activity,
and is segmented into Visual
Design, Industrial Design, Graphic
Design and Research Design.
(Munari, 2008). it is important to
note that this is a very young disci-
pline as such, and its definitions
and concepts keep evolving.
Design research showcases the
evolution of the discipline giving
birth to alternative approaches
such as Critical Design, Design Art,
Discursive Design and Associative
Design among others (Malpass,
2017).
The focus on problem solving
human activity through Design in
the Creative Industries rises a
challenge in education institutions.
This is due to the fact that there is
a requirement of theoretical (e.g.
colour theory), technical (e.g. silk
screen printing) and technological
skills (e.g. pre-press) to engage
within the practice. Designers
require the use of creative skills
(e.g. research and problem
solving methods), and
demonstrate the mastery of the
standard technologies of the
sector (Dabner et al., 2017), but
diverse institutions will provide a
different prioritisation of these
skills (Cezzar and American
Institute of Graphic Arts, 2018).
Blended Learning environments
provide teaching by incorporating
diverse teaching methods or ways
of delivering the content, such as
face to face or online (Bonk and
Graham, 2012). One of the
particular methods can be by
Flipping the Classroom, where
students can access material
online through videos and arrive
to the institution ready to
implement or further develop their
skills (Siegle, 2014).
Problem 2
Defining Teaching Content
This research carried out a survey to
produce an understanding of the
perception of technology certification and
software proficiency in the Creative
Industries. The survey consisted of 19
students and 8 graduates. From the
design disciplines the vast majority work
around the general sector of Graphic
Design (14), this is followed by Illustration
(11), and then Marketing, Editorial Design
and Advertising (5 each). There were only
3 mentions of 3D Design and Web Design
and only 1 mention of Broadcasting,
Interior Design, Motion Graphics and
Gallery Work. From these participants the
vast majority (85%) indicated that their job
requires them to use a software, where the
vast majority relied on photo retouching,
vector illustration and editorial design (all
over 74%). Nevertheless, only 5
participants have held a certification for
their software proficiency.
Arguably the reason for a low rate of
certification is due to costs, due to exams
and certifications. Students also find it
difficult to know the process for this
proficiency. But all students found such
qualifications to be partially relevant for
their profession. The price and its
relevance in their career varies depending
on the dependency of the software in that
particular discipline. After scraping
comments from Reddit users about Adobe
certifications, it can be strongly suggested
that there is no direct benefit of such
certification. Furthermore, in the Video
Editing field there seems to be a more
balanced range of opinions, while in the
Computer Science field, there seems to
be a larger appreciation for certifications.
Students’ Perspective
A Way Forward
A Survey on Technology Skills
Therefore, there is no standards of
what are the core skills in Graphic
Design and much less in Design
(Bridges, 2013). In response,
institutions produced a range of
core skills and standards to be
delivered, such as NASAD (2017)
education design standards,
Wang’s (2006) 66 competences in
Graphic Design, AIGA’s (2015) 13
competences and Bridges’ (2013)
competencies and tools. What all
these approaches have in common
is that all of them acknowledge the
role of technology within the
theoretical and technical
environment. That said, Butler
(1996) noted that there is a lack of
qualified teaching faculty.
Training is expensive
Exams are expensive
Lack of skills
Knowing where to train
Not relevant to me
Don’t need certs.
Disagree Agree
Main reasons why participants
don’t get certtified.
Participants Interested in
obtaining certifications.
Main applications used in for
their creative work
21
6
Photo retouch
Vector Illustration
Editorial Design
Video Edition
Video Post-Production
3D CAD/BIM
Animation
Interactive Media
Web forums scraped data
SCAN
Data about
Design (Adobe)
Certifications
Data about
Video (Avid)
Certifications
SCAN
Data about
Comp. Sci. (Microsoft)
Certifications
SCAN
SCAN
Creative Industries
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Blended
Learning
Flip the classroom!
Skill
Enable and support
independent levels of specialisation
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