College tutors need to stand up and be counted

Gyro recently held its annual graduate open day, which gives design graduates the opportunity to have an interview, get some feedback and possibly get a job.

We obviously hoped to find budding stars of the future, and we did find some. However, yet again the majority were unbelievably ill-prepared (see Letters, DW September 2004). For some of these students it could be the only interview that they will ever have – and with this in mind – work was badly presented, a lot of them had a serious lack of work to

showcase and most had difficulty explaining their work.

The amount of very basic advice that we had to give over and over again amazed me. It is even more amazing that the students seemed surprised by this advice and had not received it from their tutors.

Do tutors go through their students’ work at the end of each year and give them advice? It doesn’t seem so. Do tutors prepare their students for forthcoming interviews? Clearly not. Do tutors care what happens to their students once the course has been completed? I know what I think.

I would be more than happy to be part of a team that could give this basic advice and I am sure that other creative heads would be equally willing to give up their time. Perhaps next year we could visit a few colleges and help to prepare the next round of graduates before their interviews begin.

But shouldn’t colleges be doing this anyway?

Darren Bolton, Group creative director, Gyro International, London SW10