Preparing design students for the market

How design professionals are trained – knowledge and skills acquired – affects directly the contribution provided for companies. In this paper, we report an initial investigation in how academics (students and teachers) and market (companies) value different skills in graphic design professionals. Through a survey with students, teachers and companies in Brazil, we unveil the relevance of 25 skills for both students, teachers and companies. Then, we compared those groups to find differences in how the skills were rated. Our contribution aims both design educators and practitioners: for the former, the skills highly valued by companies should be addressed through design education practices in order to improve employability chances for students; for the latter, professionals looking to improve their skills and position in the market can use our findings as a possible guide for self-development as a design professional.Peer reviewe