Integration and education of students, graduates andSME’s in terms of industrial design management

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The overall objective of the project is to stimulate and integrate the industrial design sector in terms of education and labour markets within the South Baltic Region (SBR) through conduction of joint activities devoted to transfer of knowledge and exchange of good practices. The SBR industrial design sector is dominated by small and medium sized companies with a high creativity potential and little business competence. A typical career path of graduate designes involves starting up their own business, such as a design studio, but the significant lack of entrepreneurial competences and experiences is an important problem. In order to facilitate a better integration of higher education and the labour market it is therefore necessary to educate management and economics graduates in the area of industrial design management and encourage the formation of entrepreneurial partnerships between students and graduates with complementary skills. The European industrial design sector is developing rapidly, but is still beyond the level of a mature branch. The objective of the project is to facilitate the integration and education of students, graduates and SME’s, as well as support institutions and universities, in terms of industrial design management and implementation within the SBR upon basis of a cross-border training programme. The main project activities include transfer of knowledge and exchange of good practices, as well as educational, training, informational and promotional activities. The project target groups are: students, graduates of art, design and architecture; students, graduates in economics, management, business, law etc.; SME’s involved in the industrial design sector. The projects results will include: the integration and knowledge exchange between a total of 5 partners from Poland, Germany and Sweden; the development and testing of a common training programme; establishing of a common strategy for future activities to ensure the durability of project effects; training of 90 persons; organization of an annual international creative mix event. The cross border impact of the project involves the establishing of a long-term cooperation agreement between project partner institutions leading to future activities devoted to the exchange of experiences and good practices. According to the UNCTAD “Creative Economy (2008)” report creative industries are the leading component of economic growth, employment, trade, innovation, and social cohesion in most advanced economies. To become a leader in this trend and achieve a competitive position among other parts of the world, the SBR needs to implement activities devoted to bringing out the positive aspects of cultural differentiation. Cooperation within the project will provide practical experiences in this matter.

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