Life for the Audi Young Designer of the Year will be particularly sweet now that the first prize includes the payment of university fees up to pound;10,000.
And the winner will also get a student bursary of pound;500 a year, paid work experience at the product design company Virdev and a nine-month placement with the Audi Design Studio in Ingolstadt in Germany when they graduate.
The winner of the Mind to Market award, which is given to the student with the most marketable design, will receive professional consultancy and support worth as much as pound;8,000 to help them develop their prototype.
In addition, the teacher of the winning entrant will receive pound;1,000.
Students are encouraged to submit designs for a new product or to improve an existing one. But instead of starting from scratch, they are asked to submit a copy of their exam coursework design project.
The competition is now in its third year; it was set up to recognise student talent without putting extra pressure on students or teachers, says Michael Farmer, manager of the Audi Design Foundation.
“The competition is about innovation and great ideas. It’s about recognising great teaching and finding young people with a passion for what they do. We realise that it is one of the busiest times of the year but the competition is really, really easy to enter because we’ve made sure that there is no extra work,” he says.
One of the reasons this design competition has been so popular with schools, is the level of support given to shortlisted and winning students.
As well as winning pound;200, regional winners are taken on a trip to Germany to meet the designers at Audi. And support is given to enable the two final winners to develop their design or start a design career.
“It’s not just about shaking hands with the winner on the awards’ night,” says Farmer. “We really want to make a difference and we want to ensure that it is a great experience for students. We want them to meet designers and business people and discuss their designs.”
Audi Young Designer of the Year has online resources for all Damp;T students at www.audiyoungdesigner.co.uk Entry is open to students aged 16-20 studying AS and A-level Damp;T, Scottish Higher and Advanced Higher Craft and Design and Design BTEC and Advanced GNVQ. Closing date is March 22, the regional finals take place in April and May and the finals in Newcastle in September. Tel: 0800 587 7112Email: audiyoungdesigner@epr.org.uk Audi Young Designer of the Year is supported by The TES