Wakefield College | News | College students snapped up by industry

College students snapped up by industry

The talents of HND Interactive Multimedia students from Wakefield College are being recognised by regional businesses eager to bolster their workforces with newly skilled students. Twenty year old Craig Burgess has been signed up by Huddersfield based Marketing agency the Design Mechanics.

Craig Burgess who studies on the HND in Interactive Multimedia.

Dave Pannell Creative Director at The Design Mechanics said, “Over the past few years of recruiting entry-level designers, I've come to view the HND in Interactive Media my first port of call. The course realised a long time ago that the modern designer has to be able to take a job from concept to completion of every aspect of the project. From coming up with the idea for a logo to then designing the letterheads, website, email newsletters and leaflet - all around the same look and branding. If a designer can only produce websites, then their employability is going to be limited.

As an employer I'm looking for that kind of flexibility from our designers. It's no good being a good designer unless you are an employable designer, and that's where Wakefield College have excelled with their HND students.”

Craig Burgess, said: “The course tutors have gone above and beyond to give us opportunities to break into an admittedly rather difficult industry. Not for a second do I feel any less able to go into a full-time job in the design industry than somebody who has completed a university course, and I think that's largely because of the quality education we receive on the course. Not only have we been taught the skills to be a designer, we've been taught how those skills relate to employment in the industry - an area that's been extremely helpful to me.”

HND Interactive Multimedia Course Tutor, Steve Smith said, “Ultimately, it’s all about employability. It’s great when our graduates get jobs; it’s even better when employers come back for more. Creative directors like Dave at The Design Mechanics have experienced the quality of our graduates, and when other vacancies have arisen, they’ve come straight back and asked to see the next generation of talent. There’s no greater compliment than that. It proves we’re doing things the right way.

We’re labelled as a web design course, but there’s so much more to us than that. Our philosophy is to produce graduates with a set of core technical and creative skills that can be applied to other parts of the creative industry as well. I think that’s at the heart of our success, we create a lot of alternatives for the students.

Craig has been an outstanding student. From the start, his passion for design shone though. It was inevitable that he’d walk straight into a job. Fortunately for local employers, there’s plenty more like him.”