Emily Carr’s Design for Startups Helps Tech Companies In Need of Designers
On January 16, 2020 the Digital Technology Supercluster announced the first Capacity Building program of the Innovation Supercluster Initiative. The Capacity Building Program is all about talent development, and part of ensuring we have the talent for the jobs of tomorrow means engaging under-represented groups, such as women, through projects that support diversity and inclusion.
Enter Design for Startups project run by the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Design for Startups connects individual designers from Emily Carr with a tech startup in intensive 12-week sessions. Together, the designer and company develop applied solutions to a design problem. This handson program advances the careers of emerging designers and improves the core product offering of regional startups through a long-standing partnership with Innovate BC.
With the support of the Digital Supercluster, Design for Startups will pair 40 companies with 40 student designers in the next two years alone – an expansion of a program that Shumka Centre Director Kate Armstrong says bolsters the local design economy by strengthening networks between sectors in order to foster a new generation of empowered young workers.
“Design for Startups boosts capacity by building a bridge between the worlds of design and technology,” Kate says.
Minister Navdeep Bains with students and staff at Emily Carr.
Read the rest of the article on Digital Technology Supercluster Website.