Teachers of D&T: Product Design
- Mr C Mander
- Mrs L Ray (Curriculum Leader)
Reasons to Study D&T: Product Design
Design and Technology: Product Design provides you with a range of opportunities to demonstrate your passion for design as well as allowing your creative and making abilities to flourish. Students will gain a range of skills such as project management, independence, decision making, creativity and problem solving which will suit a wide range of careers.
Our Vision for D&T: Product Design
Students at SJB study Design and Technology: Product Design to become individuals who are equipped with the skills, understanding and responsibility for shaping the world for future generations. Curiosity, creativity, adaptability, independence, and problem solving underpin everything we do.
Career Paths
This A level provides a broad qualification for a wide variety of careers. Some obvious ones include:
- Product Design
- Manufacturing
- Engineering: civil, mechanical, applied, aeronautical, electronics
- Environment: architecture, interior design, landscape design
- Graphic Design: packaging, publication
- Marketing and Advertising
- Material science
- Media
There are many past students who have successfully gained A*-B in D&T in recent years and gone on to do apprenticeships with TFL and Rolls Royce or degrees in the following:
- Medicine, Languages
- Business Studies. Foundation courses
- Product/Industrial Design
View Subject Video
Key Stage 5
Qualification: A-Level Product Design
Exam Board: OCR
NEA: 50%
Exam: 50%
Exam Structure: 1 x 1hr 30min, 1 x 1hr 45min exam papers sat in the summer of Year 13
Link to specification: A Level Specification Design and Technology
Course Overview:
Principles of Product Design – 80 marks, 1 hour 30 minutes written paper (26.7% of total A Level)
This paper is set out through four sets of questions that predominantly cover technical principles within each endorsed title. Learners will be required to:
- analyse existing products
- demonstrate applied mathematical skills
- demonstrate their technical knowledge of materials, product functionality, manufacturing processes and techniques
- demonstrate their understanding of wider social, moral and environmental issues that impact on the design and manufacturing industries
Problem solving in Product Design – 70 marks, 1 hour 45 minutes written paper (23.3% of total A Level)
This component has a series of longer answer questions that require learners to demonstrate their problem solving and critical evaluation skills. Learners will be required to:
- apply their knowledge, understanding and skills of designing and manufacturing prototypes and products
- demonstrate their higher thinking skills to solve problems and evaluate situations and suitability of design solutions
Iterative Design Project – 100 marks**, approx 65 hours non-exams assessment (50% of total A Level)
The ‘Iterative Design Project’ requires learners to undertake a substantial design, make and evaluate project centred on the iterative processes of explore, create and evaluate.
Learners identify a design opportunity or problem from a context of their own choice, and create a portfolio of evidence in real time through the project to demonstrate their competence.
