Fast-track design students into the international arena. That is the ethos behind The International Entrepreneur Design for Africa, an innovative project which has been established to forge and develop partnerships between the University of Hertfordshire in the UK and three Cape Town tertiary design institutions.
The project is being headed by SA-born designer Shaun Borstrock, who is based in the UK. He is on a quest to help SA student designers to acquire entrepreneurial skills before they graduate.
According to Borstrock, there are about 15 000 graduates in the creative industries each year in the UK. That figure includes graphic, fashion, interior, industrial design, architecture, applied arts and so on, but only about 10 percent of students will get jobs in their chosen field.
Borstrock does not have the SA, stats but only a handful of this country's creative graduates are likely to land the jobs they want. And it is likely to get tougher in the credit crunched economy.
"With this project, we want to tackle the economic downturn by instilling a sense of responsibility towards industry and the consumer - so the student understands industry and, most importantly, the consumer's needs and wants."
Whether they are conceptualising interiors for low housing or for six-star resorts, the young designers will need to be able to deliver.
"What normally happens with students when they come out of university or college is that they don't know how to put a business plan together or how to effectively market themselves. With this project we are trying to instill a sense of professionalism and to expose them to the international market," he said.
In November, over three days, Borstrock and nine of his design colleagues from the UK will facilitate an intensive round of workshops, talks and demonstrations at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, for more than 700 students from CPUT, Ruth Prowse and Boston House School of Design. The students will be there to listen and learn from influential English designers and creative directors such as Greg Burne, Mark Bloomfield and Borstrock, who is both an academic and a professional within the industry.
There will be break-away sessions during the November gathering when students will have the opportunity to chat to the lecturers.
The idea for the project has been brewing for some time and its impetus came out of Borstrock's own experiences.
He arrived in the UK in the early 1990s and found that everything he knew meant nothing when it came to the international design arena.
This was not his first gig in London. He had grown up and matriculated in Sea Point and then studied design at St Martins School of Art and Design in London. This was followed by 18 months in London and New York, working with the Emmanuel's who designed Princess Di's wedding dress, before returning to Cape Town in 1990.
Here he ran his own label for two years before returning to the UK.
"I still wasn't prepared for the market there and from what I have noticed on the last 20 years - nothing has changed," said Borstrock, who is now associate head of School of Art and Design in the faculty for the creative and cultural industries at the University of Hertfordshire and is a consultant to luxury brands and associations such as Thomas Pink, Fortnum and Mason and The British Luxury.
He has also collaborated with designers on a variety of projects and collections for Vivienne Westwood, Karen Millen, Jaeger, Lulu Guinness and other luminaries and is one of the organisers of a conference on luxury which will take place in London next year (www.inpursuitofluxury.com).
Now, he wants to share what he has learnt with emerging designers in this country.
Subsequent phases of the project will also include a Creative Entrepreneurial Challenge in January 2010. Three students from Cape Town will compete with students from the UK and Russia in an Apprentice-style venture which will "encourage them to think like an entrepreneur".
- For more information contact Bryan Ramkilawan at CPUT on 021 460 3453.