Study on the Talent Training Model of Image Design from the Perspective of the S

[a] Zhejiang Textile and Apparel Vocational and Technical College, Zhejiang, Ningbo, China.

*Corresponding author.

Received 12 November 2011; accepted 22 May 2012

Abstract

This paper deeply explored the objective, significance and basic ideas of the talent training model of image design from the perspective of the soft power for employment via literature research and rational logic method, and further proposed a specific implementation plan of talent training model for improving the soft power of the students of image design major for employment.

Key words: Image design; Professional talent; Soft power of employment

MAO Jinding (2012). Study on the Talent Training Model of Image Design from the Perspective of the Soft Power for Employment. Studies in Sociology of Science, 3(2), -0. Available from: URL: /index.php/sss/article/view/j.sss.1923018420120302.ZR102

DOI: /10.3968/j.sss.1923018420120302.ZR102

Introduction

Accompanied with the rapid economic and social development and the growth of image design in China, image design major emerged as a kind of art majors, with huge developmental potential. Building and developing the image design major, cultivating high-quality image design professionals, is the need of the time progress and the demand of social development. In recent years, image design major got fast development, which shows that on one hand, the social demand for such professionals is increasing, and on the other hand, the graduates of this major will face with fierce competitions of job hunting. Since the higher education has gradually became universal, it rapidly turned from the “sellers’ market” to the “buyers’ market”, and the standards for talents is no longer determined by school, but by practitioner groups. Therefore, how to cultivate professionals of image design who could adapt to work in various areas of image design, with both solid professional knowledge and strong practical skills, as well as relatively strong industrial management ability, namely strong soft power for employment, is currently our primary task. Thus this paper tried to propose a competence-building model for increasing the soft power for employment. In the field of higher education, soft power for employment refers to the soft power that must be equipped with to be engaged in certain kind of occupation, duty or function. This paper aimed at constructing an educational model with the purpose of increasing the soft power for employment, and applying it into the cultivation of image design professionals, exploring the multi-capacity composition of image design professionals, designing curriculums based on the capability requirements, enhancing the practice session for capability development, to combine the social demand with self development and student training, set market-based training targets, develop students’ soft power for employment as effective weapon, enabling the image design professionals to fully reflect the significance of the major to the society after graduation, thus find out own self-value release point in the society.

Overview of similar research and practice status

After reviewing the relevant papers on CNKI, and conducting inductive analysis of the retrieved documents, we found that most of the existing research laid emphasis on the specific image design such as film and television characters, stage characters and TV program hosts, the research on the daily life image design or professional image design is just on the initial stage, and there is much less research on the talent training of image design. In the field of practice, as people’s demand for personalized and multi-level image design increases, image design has become a popular culture, universally recognized and accepted, greatly propelling the fast development of image design major in a short time in China. In recent years, the total scale of the image design major in China got enlarged fast, but due to the short time of major construction, big gap of educational resources and different background majors, each school has different understanding and practice regarding the training objective, curricular structure and teaching methods, at the same time, due to large number of employers, different business features, and lack of education quality evaluation information in the society, it is hard to propose guiding opinions. However, there is common view on the change of talent capability requirement in the information ear by domestic colleges and universities: the knowledge explosion requires the capability of quickly finding and mastering useful knowledge; the industrial cross and integration in the information ear urgently requires the talents with comprehensive capabilities. These common views objectively promoted the colleges and universities to transform from knowledge teaching-based education to the one that focuses on capability training, personality and thinking development, cultivation of lifelong learning sense and ability, namely from knowledge-based talent training to quality talent training.

Explanation of the talent training model with the purpose of increasing the soft power for employment of the image design major students

Basic Idea

Under the principle of increasing the soft power for employment of the image design major students, this paper investigated the current social demand for image design talents, used the similar international talent training mode for reference, predicted the development path, and revised in the teaching practice, proposed a soft power demand model suitable for the employers, built practical training mode for the image design major students. In the model, the social demand includes the forecast of the total demand for talents and competence structure. The mode includes the development trend of international education, development background, and educational theory. Directing at the curriculum design, experiment teaching, social surveys, training on rapid acquisition and application of new knowledge (internet learning and social practice), and shortcomings of graduation thesis design, this model tried to perfect the teaching content and methods, systematically improve the students’ abilities in an all-rounded way. It should be noted that here we divided the competence into 3 levels: first, basic ability, including learning ability, language ability and practice ability; second, professional ability, such as the overall planning ability of image design, make-up, image design, hairdressing and other professional design and operation abilities; third, developmental ability, such as management ability, innovation ability, interpersonal skills. These 3 levels of abilities could be jointly integrated as occupational ability. The training of image design talents can not only focus on the professional abilities, while neglecting the training of basic ability and developmental ability.

Specific Implementation Plan

Develop Training Plan Starting from Occupation Analysis

Adhere to learn from the foreign advanced vocational education thoughts, adopt DACUM method to develop teaching plan. Establish an Expert Advisory Committee composed of the relevant practitioner groups, who would conduct occupational analysis, and participate in the development of training plan. Draw up the major training plan (teaching plan) based on the process of “occupational competence analysis comprehensive ability analysis specific skill analysis set the final performance goals describe occupational ability module decompose the competence requirements determine the theoretical teaching and practice teaching modules”. Therefore, the knowledge, ability and basic quality structure, as well as the system of theoretical teaching and practice teaching in the training plan should be closer to the real demand of job positions.

Adjust the Major Direction According to the Changes of Market Demands, Continuously Optimize Training Plan

In order to duly and accurately understand and master the changes of demands for the professional image design talents, make the trained image design talents more fit for the market demand, during the process of implementing the teaching plan, we should adhere to do the survey of the talent market, continuously optimize the training plan according to the changes of talent demand, make the plan closer to the real demand of job positions. The main survey content includes “current status of image design talents”, “current title status of image design talents” and “demands and level of image design talents in the future” and so on. And then we should seriously analyze the survey results, write survey reports and publish them on the relevant academic journals, and adjust the direction of the image design major based on the analysis of survey results.

Reform the Curricular Design, Adopt Modularized Curricular Design

1) Principles for the modularized curricular design of image design major

The modularized curricular design aims at broadening students’ knowledge, and improving students’ comprehensive abilities, mainly based on the “enough knowledge for use, practice”. At the same time, it needs the support of curricular resource information library, to provide the direct learning support service for students. The modularized curricular design should meet the following principles: the design of major should fit for the training goal and the features of image design talents training; fit for the flexibility requirements for students’ personalized curricular selection and new knowledge introduction; fit for the market demands; all the curricula can be orderly linked up.

2) Structure of the modularized curricular design of image design major

a. Basic Theory Module

First, analyze all the basic theory curricula, cancel part of them; second, select and compress content for the reserved curricula, only keep the elementary, primary and practical content, the remaining should be learnt or referred by students themselves; third, freely assembly curricular to form curriculum group according to the major requirements and students’ needs; fourth, emphasize the combination between the explanation of the theories and the case study, finally lead to the improvement of industrial skills.

b. Industrial Skill Module

According to the changes of the labor market, the industrial skill module should the key of teaching. Via social survey, practice session and other practical teaching links, combining with the features of each major and the corresponding social industrial characteristics, try to improve students’ practice ability, conversion?ability and viability after the training and practice of this module.

c. Frontier?Information Module

The goal of systematically introducing the frontier?information to students is not the introduction of theoretical knowledge, but cultivating students’ innovative sense and sprit. The teaching focus is, via the introduction of the frontier?information, to make students comprehend the new ideas, research methods and mode of thinking in such information.

Highlight the Features of Image Design Major, Enhance the Practice Teaching Session

Practical teaching session is the initial design work trial of the image design major students. Well carrying out the practical teaching session, combining the professional theories and the practice of image design, will play an important role in improving students’ image design abilities. The practical teaching sessions include apprenticeships, internships, assignments, social surveys, experiments, etc..

Reform the Assessment Method, Breakthrough the Traditional Assessment Method

The traditional assessment methods usually include regular evaluation?and?final exam (major project), in which the teaching and exam are not separated, lacking the test of market. We would adopt diverse assessment methods such as scientific research involvement, group evaluation, which is similar to curriculum cooperation assessment, improves the teaching quality by replacing exam with competition.

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