14 aspiring designers got the head start they were hoping for by attending the Polytechnic Preparatory Programme conducted by Temasek Design School. The aim of the Head Start Design Program is to enable students enrolled in Direct Polytechnic Admission to communicate, work as a team, use graphical and visual representations and develop thinking skills to generate and evaluate design solutions.
The direct polytechnic admission exercise was introduced to give final-year secondary school students an opportunity to secure a place in any polytechnic course, even before they sit for their GCE ‘O’ level examinations. The Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) exercise was conducted in 2007 together with the Direct School Admissions exercise for Junior Colleges. The Design aspirants were selected on the basis of an interview, letters of recommendation, portfolios of work and other evidence of creativity & imagination.
Students had an opportunity to undertake sessions on conceptualization tools like Ideation and Design Process as well as familiarize themselves with the visualization tools used in design like photography, video & hands-on manipulation of materials like paper. They also visited precedent sites like The National Museum and the Temasek Design School 2008 Diploma Show, Possibilities, to learn how design is applied to create a cohesive presentation.
Graduating students from 2008 took the lead in inducting them into the world of design at the end of which they mounted an exhibition of their work. The aim was to imbibe the students with Design school culture and to express a response through a visual representation and to justify their selection to the Design School by use of word, image, type or any 2 or 3 D representation.
