In this Member Spotlight, we hear from new Academic member, Service Design Academy, on being the first organisation in the world to achieve Service Design Network full accreditation, and joining ScotlandIS to explore the partnerships through the complement of tech and service design.
Who is Service Design Academy, and what do you do?
Service Design Academy is dedicated to delivering innovative and accredited service design training and education programmes. We have been part of Dundee and Angus College since 2017.
Our purpose is to educate on the design process, ensuring that organisations deliver services and experiences that are person-centred, effective and inclusive.
Service Design Academy is proud to be a part of the growth of service design practice in Scotland, the UK and further afield. Our team of educators do this by building skills and knowledge within organisations and communities leading to sustainable and impactful change.
Tell us something unique or interesting about your organisation.
We are the first organisation in the world to deliver an SQA accredited Professional Development Award PDA in Service Design. Our six-month PDA is completely practical, over 400 graduates have been given the opportunity to try out what they’ve learned on real work projects or problems.
What is your biggest achievement as an organisation?
Don’t make us choose just one!
We were the first organisation in the world to achieve Service Design Network full accreditation in 2020. This prestigious accolade demonstrates our ongoing commitment to offer world-class training and education (see A World First for Dundee’s Service Design Academy | Dundee and Angus Chamber).
We are particularly proud of our partnerships with local communities to improve employability outcomes with the purpose of reducing child poverty (see Empowering communities to design better services for families – Service Design Academy).
What prompted you to become a member of ScotlandIS?
Tech and service design can form a powerful partnership by combining their strengths to create innovative, user-centred solutions.
We are excited about the opportunity for transformative partnerships with the tech community. Tech companies leverage data analytics to inform their decisions. Service design uses data to better understand user behaviours and preferences, leading to more informed design choices all round.
We are keen to support innovation labs where both tech and service design teams can experiment with new ideas and technologies, leading to breakthrough innovations.
One great example is the work we have done is with Scottish Social Services Council, you can find out more here: Seeing the human face of an organisation – Service Design Academy.
What do you see as the main challenges for the tech industry in the UK and Scotland?
Securing funding, closing skills gaps, attracting talent, business scaling, building resilience in the context of the mainstream adoption of AI and automation are the challenges we are most aware of.
The good news is that we can help – whether it’s designing robust funding plans, building innovation capability, supporting scaling or the mapping of networks. We are excited to continue to add value to the tech community.
Get in touch if you’d like to find out more at info@sda.ac.uk or visit www.sda.ac.uk.