Developing future working life competencies with earth-centered design

Integration of sustainability in the curriculum of higher education creates a demand for bringing the theme into concrete development projects. Sustainable and proactive development have been identified in Finland as key generic competences in higher education. Capability to innovate and create sustainable solutions and services for future are key skills in producing novel sustainable solutions. We experimented with master’s level students the use of a novel design method, Planet Centric Design (PCD), to create sustainable system and service concepts for the future. The trialed method combines systems thinking with service design to solve sustainability related challenges. It has been developed by a software company to support practical sustainable solution development jointly with their customers. Companies have recently been active in developing their own approaches to support design related activities. Trialing, benchmarking, and learning the use of the topical industry-lead methods during their studies, provides students practical hands-on experiences of using the methods and confidence to use the methods. The participating students found using an industry-developed design method valuable. Learning about sustainability was perceived to be applicable both for working and personal life and have impact in both areas. In the student’s self-reflection reports on their learning and experiences, the collaborative teamwork in multidisciplinary teams and the creative confidence gained through the learning to use a novel design approach, were the most most often described positive themes.