Skills Framework for Design
The Skills Framework for Design provides useful information on the design sector, career pathways, job roles, existing and emerging skills as well as relevant training programmes required for the job roles.
Who is this for
Everyone is part of Singapore’s SkillsFuture journey. The choices you make or guide others to make in education, jobs or careers should lead to opportunities to maximise one’s potential and develop a mastery of skills. To meet challenges and achieve success, chart your own paths through lifelong learning and skills mastery.
The Skills Framework for Design presents different proficiency levels, and corresponding courses that are mapped. Any individual – entry-level or experienced – can access these skills and training. Beyond the individual, design employers, training providers and intermediaries in the ecosystem can use this framework to drive and grow this movement.
Aim
The Skills Framework for Design aims to help individuals, design employers, and training providers find out more about the design sector, what career pathways are available, job roles, existing and emerging skills as well as relevant training programmes required for the job roles.
Design is more than just a form-giving aesthetic function. Design is also a capability to transform and change businesses and organisations; humanise technology; innovate systems and customer experiences. A design-empowered workforce is increasingly needed for.
Framework outline
- Designers who can integrate knowledge and methods from different disciplines and operate in non-design contexts.
- Non-designers who are equipped with design-related skills to enable innovation in the workplace
Design Facilitators, Storytellers, Service Experience Designers, Creative Technologists are just some examples of new roles being hired for. What do these job titles mean? Read on to find out.
Everyone can be mindful of these career opportunities. Anyone can take up these jobs. Jointly developed with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG), the Skills Framework for Design was created in consultation with design employers, industry associations, education and training providers.
What are the emerging skills?
As design changes the world, the design-empowered workforce is in for a world of change and cannot stay still. It needs to deepen and broaden skills – to master different disciplines. The Skills Framework for Design presents desired attributes, and the knowledge and skills that need to be acquired. Here are some emerging skills that are in demand by design employers.
- Business Model Innovation
Identify and capitalise on untapped areas of business opportunities by proposing and instituting innovative changes to existing business models - Content Development and Strategy
Brainstorm, ideate and utilise writing strategies and plans to maximise user engagement - Creative Entrepreneurship
Develop and inspire the creation of creative or intellectual capital to generate activities for business success - Design Sustainability and Ethics Management
Create designs that consider the limitations, regulations and guidelines on intellectual property, sustainability, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility, aligning to behaviours and actions which are generally accepted in the profession - Empathetic Design
Apply and drive empathetic-centred design thinking to better understand users’ feelings and perceptions towards products and services, as well as the emotional tone of creative design work - Interaction Design Practice
Develop digital and/or physical interactions across technology, products, space and services media to enhance relationships and engagement with users - Systems Thinking
Identify, analyse and evaluate relationships among systems’ parts, with the use of simulation tools and systems thinking techniques and frameworks to understand situations and drive change for improvements - User Experience Design
Conceptualise and enhance users’ interactions and engagement with products and services by integrating elements of interaction design, information architecture, information design, visual interface design, user assistance design and user-centered design
How to use the Skills Framework for Design – for employers
Explore the various tools and templates to find out about the skillsets you need to form your dream team! Some examples of the templates that reference the jobs and skills information from the framework are: interview checklist, job role advertisement, on-the-job training blueprint and performance appraisal.
This is an example of an interview checklist for the role of Designer:
To download the above interview checklist and other types of templates, click here.
Here are the stories of Singaporeans who used the Skills Framework for Design:
- Ziqq Rafit – the Creative Technologist (aka. The Modern Day Inventor)
- Prasoon Kumar – the Design Entrepreneur
- Christian Teo – the Design Coach
- Melisa Chan – the UX Designer
How to apply
What are the grants available?
To help companies to adopt the use of Skills Framework for Design into their current Human Resource (HR) practices, here are some initiatives offered by Enterprise Singapore (ESG):
Enterprise Development Grant (EDG)
This grant supports projects that help companies upgrade their business, innovate or venture overseas under the following pillar:
- Core capabilities: HR development i.e. beyond basic HR functions like payroll management
- Innovation & Productivity: Automation and technology to make routine tasks efficient
- Market access: For companies willing and ready to venture overseas
- Up to 70% of consultancy, software, equipment and internal manpower cost
Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG)
This grant supports companies looking to kick-start their adoption of technology with pre-qualified IT solutions and equipment that enhances productivity:
To find out more information of the above grants, click here.
Skills Framework for Design training programmes
A design-empowered workforce makes the future better by design. Explore the Skills Framework for Design training programmes available here.
Find out more about the Skills Framework for Design
View the media release here.
