Why study Design and Manufacture?
This course allows you to explore the multi-faceted world of product design and manufacturing. Creativity is at the heart of this course and its combination with technology makes it exciting and dynamic.
Design and Manufacture provides you with skills in designing and communicating design proposals, allowing you to refine and resolve your design ideas effectively. The course stresses the integration of designing and making, highlighting the close relationship between designing, making, testing, and refining design ideas.
The skills you learn in this course give you a broad range of potential for jobs or careers; in the expressive arts, mathematics, science, information technology, as well as in craft, design, engineering and graphics.
What do I need to get in?
The school or college will decide on the entry requirements for the course. You would normally have achieved:
What will I study?
This course combines elements of creativity and designing for aesthetic or visual impact with elements of designing for the practicalities of manufacturing. You will appreciate the importance to a product of form, function, and performance. You will develop strategies for the evaluation of these attributes and to refine and resolve their designs accordingly. The course allows consideration of the various factors that impact on a product’s design. It will consider the life cycle of a product from its inception through design, manufacture, and use, including its disposal and/or re-use – cradle-to-cradle.
The course consists of two compulsory units and the course assessment unit.
Design and Manufacture: Design (9 SCQF credit points)
In this unit you will:
- learn the processes of product design from brief to resolved design proposals and specification
- develop skills in initiating, developing, articulating and communicating design proposals for products
- gain skills and experience in evaluating design proposals in order to refine, improve and resolve them
- develop an appreciation of design concepts and the various factors that influence the design and manufacture of products.
Design and Manufacture: Materials and Manufacturing (9 SCQF credit points)
In this unit you will:
- learn the processes of product design from design proposals to prototype
- gain skills in planning and making models and prototypes
- ‘close the design loop’ by manufacturing a set of design ideas
- develop an appreciation of manufacturing practicalities
- strengthen an appreciation of the various factors that influence the design and manufacture of products
- consider the manufacturing techniques and processes that would apply to a design proposal in an industrial/commercial context.
In both Units, learners will gain knowledge and understanding of design and manufacturing technologies and how these impact on our environment and society.
How will I be assessed?
Course assessment (6 SCQF credit points)
The course assessments has two components:
- a question paper (worth 70 marks)
- an assignment (worth 70 marks).
The question paper will assess breadth of knowledge, understanding and skills accumulated across the course. The question paper will be set and marked by SQA.
The assignment will assess your practical application of knowledge and skills from the units to develop a solution to an appropriately challenging design problem.
Your work will be assessed by your teacher on an ongoing basis throughout the course. You must pass all three units and the course assessment to gain the course qualification.
The course assessment is graded A-D. Your grade will depend on the total mark for all the units in your course.
What can I go on to next?
If you complete the course successfully, it may lead to:
Further study, training or employment in:
Which jobs are related to this subject?
Where can my parents find out more?
Your school will give your parents an Options or Choices information booklet, which has detailed information on the curriculum and the individual subjects or courses you can study. It will also invite them along to a Parents’ Information Evening.
They can also read the information leaflet(s):
Highers in a Nutshell - Design and Manufacture (CfE Higher)