The need for creative skills in design engineering, and how education can develop them

A survey of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was carried out, in the high-technology and hardware design services industries in Scotland, with an emphasis on innovation. The survey was to investigate the changing needs of such industry for innovation skills in its employees, and whether those needs are being met by graduates from further education and higher education. For this purpose, two colleges of further education were also studied. An analysis of the survey found that the industry is changing its employment practices and that education providers, in their turn, are also changing, in order to better serve the needs of industry. Leading further education colleges are investing in better training facilities and forging closer links with industry. They are successfully attracting more training interest from the SMEs, too. There is also a move towards more development of soft skills in students, which makes them better prepared for modern industry. Universities are turning their attention toward creative skills in general. We give an example of student project work, that aims to exercise all the skills identified from the surveys. However, the findings are inconclusive as to whether the current changes in education practices will be enough to meet the challenges of creative work in particular. Consideration of a psychological theory of creativity leads to implications regarding the social conditions required to sustain creative workers. The resulting challenges may be too much for us to answer. The education sector itself needs to respond to this situation with creativity of its own.