SINGAPORE: Amid a rapid rise in automation and artificial intelligence worldwide, Singapore’s first national-level design education committee has come up with a new strategy to teach innovation and design in schools. The goal: To have a workforce prepared for an economy that is increasingly defined by challenges like AI, climate change, and an ageing population. On Thursday (Jun 13), the Design Education Advisory Committee – appointed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in early 2020 – unveiled a blueprint for a “future design school”.
The blueprint aims to put design thinking at the core of daily curriculum from the primary to tertiary levels, as a central life skill for all students. It will push the idea of design beyond established conventions in disciplines like architecture, product and fashion design. COMPLEMENTARY WAY OF THINKING “The introduction of design thinking, which is a form of creative problem-solving, basically offers not just an alternative but a complementary way of thinking,” said committee chairman Low Cheaw Hwei.
“This is very different from linear thinking, right? We're used to rote learning and trying to find answers from the book, but in design thinking, it actually also takes on the activity of prototyping your ideas very quickly,” he told CNA’s Singapore Tonight programme. Ms Dawn Lim, executive director of the DesignSingapore Council – a subsidiary of the Economic Development Board – said some of the best products and ser.