Abstract
This study aimed to identify the priority competencies that entry-level interior designers had developed to practise the profession and the differences in the priority of these competencies between different graduation years. A questionnaire comprising four axes was distributed to 53 students who had graduated from interior design programmes between 2015 and 2019 and were practising the profession. The results indicated that the competencies on all axes were considered by entry-level interior designers to be priorities for development, while those that obtained the highest scores were related to materials and lighting, client relationships and management, tasks related to project planning, resource and cost management, contract management, project supervision, and English language proficiency. In general, the highest priority competencies were those related to project management; however, the results showed that there were no differences between the priority of these competencies in different graduation years. The findings may help interior design programme management by highlighting the competencies needed in the labour market. In addition, it may raise academic advisers’ awareness to assist students to choose the appropriate optional courses and activities that contribute to the achievement of programme learning outcomes and labour market requirements, which, in turn, may reduce the time required for training and the speed of entering the profession. Keywords: interior designer competencies; labour market; interior design; entry-level interior designers; interior design practice DOI: 10.7176/ADS/82-06 Publication date: June 30 th 2020
Highlights
The Ninth Development Plan of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning highlighted positive growth in the field of building and construction and the promise of developing national manpower and raising its professional competencies to improve the quality of the sector’s products (MEP, 2017)
The Vision 2030 initiative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has opened up many opportunities that have led to the growth in this field (Vision 2030); the interior design sector is considered one of the largest in the KSA, and its increasing growth has led to a new demand for qualified designers (Al-Zahrani, 2016)
Despite the limited sample of this study, it was observed that 96.2% of the female graduates were professionally practising interior design, which is a high rate in terms of the total study sample
Summary
The Ninth Development Plan of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning highlighted positive growth in the field of building and construction and the promise of developing national manpower and raising its professional competencies to improve the quality of the sector’s products (MEP, 2017). According to Al-Zahrani, male students had previously enrolled in university arts programmes to train to work in the interior design field due to the shortage of interior design departments for male students (Al-Zahrani, 2016). With this rapid development and the increasing demand for qualified national employees, it is expected that new academic programmes will be launched that serve all of the fields related to the building and construction sector. The processes of measuring learning outcomes may go through multiple stages that require time and effort, the researchers stated that studies related to labour market requirements can increase awareness in the academic field to support students by enriching their knowledge and enabling them to develop skills that increase their competencies before graduation (Alawad, Bazuhair, Alhojaly, & Mossawa, 2020)
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