Survey on Employment Status and Perceived Gaps Between Education and Practice Among Design Graduates
Abstract
This survey targets graduates from the 2020–2024 Young Designers’ Exhibition, analyzing their employment status, salary levels, and the gap between academic training and industry demands. Results show that while some technical skills align with workplace needs, gaps remain in areas such as communication and collaboration, project management, interdisciplinary teamwork, AI integration, and sustainability trends. Most graduates believe that design education lacks dynamic adaptation, making it difficult to keep pace with rapid industry changes, thus increasing workplace adjustment pressure. The survey also found that interdisciplinary capabilities, digital skills, and internship experience are strongly correlated with job performance, starting salary, and career stability. It is recommended that design education be strengthened in six key areas: entrepreneurship curriculum development, soft skills cultivation, practical training in AI and UX, deepened academia-industry collaboration, and the inclusion of industry mentors, all aimed at nurturing design talents with future competitiveness.
Keywords
Design graduates; Employment survey; Education-industry gap; Design education alignment
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.506
Citation
Chen, P., Tsai, C.L.,and Hsiao, Y.C.(2025) Survey on Employment Status and Perceived Gaps Between Education and Practice Among Design Graduates, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.506
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 12 - Design Education
Survey on Employment Status and Perceived Gaps Between Education and Practice Among Design Graduates
This survey targets graduates from the 2020–2024 Young Designers’ Exhibition, analyzing their employment status, salary levels, and the gap between academic training and industry demands. Results show that while some technical skills align with workplace needs, gaps remain in areas such as communication and collaboration, project management, interdisciplinary teamwork, AI integration, and sustainability trends. Most graduates believe that design education lacks dynamic adaptation, making it difficult to keep pace with rapid industry changes, thus increasing workplace adjustment pressure. The survey also found that interdisciplinary capabilities, digital skills, and internship experience are strongly correlated with job performance, starting salary, and career stability. It is recommended that design education be strengthened in six key areas: entrepreneurship curriculum development, soft skills cultivation, practical training in AI and UX, deepened academia-industry collaboration, and the inclusion of industry mentors, all aimed at nurturing design talents with future competitiveness.