David Hiddleston’s Blog

Today (2^nd October) at Forth Neighbourhood Partnership the Clean, Green and Safe Group launched a promotional campaign to highlight the fact that buying alcohol for underage drinkers is breaking the law and can lead to a £1000 fine.  This campaign hopes to tackle the issue of alcohol misuse among the under 18’s and the resultant anti-social behaviour. Community Council Representative George Gordon who is the representative for the Neighbourhood Partnership and the community chair for the Clean, Green and Safe Group said, “This initiative is an excellent example of partnership working with the police, the educational authorities and the council to produce a positive message campaign which is a serious issue for the local community. Agent buying has been identified as the way which most under age people obtain alcohol, friends, family members or just approaching random people who are going into an off-licence.In order to challenge this behaviour we approached Edinburgh’s Telford College to design a poster not aimed at under-age drinkers, rather, at young adults who often supply under-age drinkers with alcohol, whether innocently or deliberately.”  The two poster designs chosen by the group are being distributed throughout North Edinburgh targeting off licence premises, youth groups and public buildings.  Chris Hughes lecturer, Design, Media and Computing at Telford College, explained,“The poster had to inform young adults that supplying alcohol to the under aged is a very serious offence with real consequences. For the students this was a great chance to work on a ‘live’ project dealing with an important issue in our society, and delivering to a high- profile client.”          

Background

There has been a growing recognition of the value to our students, and indeed to the design profession, in establishing and developing a working relationship between education and industry. In the past we have employed visiting lecturers, arranged agency visits and students have been given practical work experience. However for many agencies their first contact with students is still at final shows or exhibitions. 

Mentoring

We are looking to change this and bridge the gap by introducing a more structured commitment from our students and from those leading members of the design industry through mentoring.‘Mentors’ would be allocated 2 students at the start of the academic year and after an initial briefing meeting the students would be asked to produce a piece of work in answer to the mentors brief over the course of the first term.It would be a matter of personal choice as to the level of interaction and guidance given during the intervening period.The final piece should be presented to the Mentor and feedback given and a brief critique produced for the College. (It is not anticipated that this will involve more than 4 hours.)During the second term the Mentors would be asked to advise their students as they prepare their portfolios in anticipation for work experience and give them some guidance in relation to one or two design competitions during the term. (Again this portion of the scheme should not take more than 4 hours.)