Gain a QQI Certificate in Service Design in just 6 weeks!
Gain invaluable experience, learn from experts and build your future career with an industry-leading Professional Certificate in Service Design!
Design Skillnet is excited to announce an exciting collaboration with NCAD’s Creative Futures Academy! We are delighted to announce an exciting collaboration between Creative Futures Academy at NCAD and Design Skillnet on the co-creation of a new ‘Professional Certificate in Service Design’.
The Service Design programme seeks to empower students from fields such as design, business, sociology, systems thinking, education, banking, technology and the public sector to shape the services of the future through design thinking and doing.
Applications are NOW OPEN via CFA@NCAD
Content
Service designers craft solutions for intricate systemic and societal challenges, crafting experiences tailored to meet the diverse needs of multiple users and stakeholders. Service Design is a new and rapidly expanding discipline.
This certificate in Service Design aims to improve awareness of the issues that determine the usability of a designed service through the lenses of People, Data and Systems. Learners will analyse how Service Design has evolved, and establish where the current ‘state of the art’ lies in relation to their own area of interest within the discipline.
Students will be introduced to the fundamental principles and processes of the discipline, including Human Centred Design, enabling them to integrate Service Design practices in their own work outside the course.
Industry speakers will address topics and challenges faced by service design practitioners in the real world, such as integrating Service Design within organisations, operating within constraints, and identifying cutting edge approaches and opportunities within Service Design.
Our Professional Certificate equips students with the core principles of Service Design, offering both theoretical insights and practical experience with service design methodologies and tools to excel in their future careers.
Aim:
- Introduce fundamental principles, methods, skills, and theories of service design
- Cover key aspects of professional practice, including historical, theoretical, cultural, and professional contexts
- Present various design methodologies and techniques for professional development, presentation, and documentation
What you will learn:
The programme will help students to:
- Understand and apply the principles and methodologies of Service Design, including user-centred design, customer journey mapping, and persona development.
- Gain proficiency in the tools and techniques needed to excel within the Service Design industry that will allow students to analyse, prototype, and iterate on services for optimal user experiences.
- Develop the understanding and empathy to help craft experiences tailored to meet the diverse needs of multiple users and stakeholders in various industries
- Build effective communication and collaboration skills to work with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and clients.
Who is it for?
The programme seeks to empower students from fields such as design, business, sociology, systems thinking, education, banking, technology and the public sector to shape the services of the future through design thinking and doing.
- Recent BA graduate
- Early career practitioner
- Early-mid career professional with a background or an interest in design
- Mature, experienced independent practitioner, for opportunity for development.
- Practitioner looking for a new direction.
- Mid-career professional (non-practitioner) working in project management, public sector, business etc., interested in the social impact that design can have
Benefits
- Graduates are well placed to take up employment in the following roles: Service Design, UX, Experience Design, CX and Strategic Design.
- Access to job pool
- Networking opportunities with Service Design experts and industry professionals
- Certificate of completion
- Proficiency in high-demand industry work tools and techniques
- Cross-functional team communication skills and experience
Future Careers
NCAD Service Design graduates have gone on to secure positions within the public and private sectors in the fields of consultancy, healthcare, innovation, and information technology. Graduates are well placed to take up employment in the following roles: Service Design, UX, Experience Design, CX and Strategic Design.
The programme actively facilitates mobility within the college and across Creative Futures Academy and provides articulation into a variety of postgraduate programmes and career pathways.
Schedule
The Professional Certificate in Service Design Programme will begin on April 4th 2025.
Duration: 6 Weeks
Application closing date: March 28th 2025
6 weeks, 50% online and 50% in person
This Professional Certificate in Service Design will be delivered across 6 weeks (April 4th – May 23rd), including a 2-week break for Easter.
This course will require 6 x 3-hour weekly sessions, held on Friday mornings (10.00am to 13.00pm) starting on April 4th, at a rate of 5 credits.
The programme will be delivered in a blended format – this is to afford the student cohort the convenience of online learning, and the opportunity to also connect and collaborate in person.
Three of the weeks will be online, Three will be face-to-face.
Friday mornings (10.00-13.00)
Dates:
April 4th, in-person
April 11th, online
2 weeks Break for Easter
May 2nd, in-person
May 9th, online
May 16th, online
May 23rd, in-person
Team
Jennifer Groarke
Jennifer Groarke works as a lecturer in both Interaction and Product Design at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
“I am interested in people, technology and design! Throughout my career I have designed a number of products from tables and lamps, to websites, mobile apps and chatbots!”
Joanna Crawley
Joanna Crawley will answer any questions relating to your application. crawleyj@ncad.ie
Assessment
This certification will be assessed through a group assignment and presentation that helps to deliver a practical learning experience that promotes open communication and extensive theoretical learning.
Fees
Design Skillnet is delighted to collaborate with NCAD’s Creative Future Academy to offer a special partnership rate for this programme.
Design Skillnet Subsidy
This Certificate has been co-created in partnership between Design Skillnet and CFA@NCAD. Co-funding of 34% of the programme fee (€205)* is available via Design Skillnet to successful, eligible applicants*.
Co-funding of 34% of the Course fee is available via Design Skillnet for up to 16 places in this programme.
Pricing:
Non-Members: €600
Design Skillnet Co-Funded Rate: €395*
*To be eligible for this co-funding you must be (a) successful in your application via NCAD and (b) be a member of IDI, IAPI, ICAD, 100 Archive working in the private or commercial semi-state sector and based in the Republic of Ireland.
Not a member? Email info@idi-design.ie to find out how to join or visit our web page on how to become a member and avail of the subsidies.
If you have graduated within the past 3 years you may be eligible for graduate membership at the special graduate price of €30.Standard/Full (non-graduate) membership of IDI costs €197 per annum plus a one-off €50 application fee.
Application
Now open via CFA
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