Following swiftly on the heels of my last article, you may recall I had promised to look at what you might expect to be taught once you had chosen a course and what I decided to do was to look initially at (what I’m referring to as) the entry level courses that require no previous qualifications or experience in the subject.
The rather glamorously named British Academy of Interior Design (BAID) diploma course comes in at a very reasonable £350 for a course that I read is generally completed in 3 months. It includes 5 assessments, has no entry requirements and is equivalent to the British National Qualifications Framework level 3 – a great start if you want to start working as a designer and of course a great start if you want to see how you get on, perhaps before giving up your current job and taking up design.
Interestingly, the University of Arts London (UAL) runs not only foundation courses, but a 3 hour taster course called “Bite sized Interior Design” and another beginners course called “introduction to interior design”, which isn’t an essential start, but could be ideal if you’re serious about making that step. The latter course includes the essentials of planning space, producing moodboards and colour palettes – certainly an exciting toe in the water”
If you are more confident in yourself and your career choice though, UAL also run an interior design course for beginners called “module one”, introducing you to several aspects via lectures and workshops.
I have to say, that even at this embryonic stage of my research, UAL seems to embrace the likes of you and I and offer a vast range of courses that tick just about all the boxes.
I might be fickle, but each time I’ve looked at https://www.nda.ac.uk/study/courses/fda-degree/interior-design/ the web window of The National Design Academy (NDA) in Nottingham, I’m struck by the prominence of offers – “Pay no upfront fees” for example and a tantalising (possible) “50% of your course fees” is another and at the risk of being trounced a cynic I have to wonder why they have to make such prominent offers rather than focusing on the quality of their training and successes of alumni .
All that being said, they do run a diploma course in Interior design, aimed at us beginners and validated by Staffordshire University, which furthermore can be studied as part-time distance learning or studio based at the academy.
More to follow…