Product Design seems to be one of those things tutors and lecturers avoid telling you the truths about jobs and so on. I finished June/July and have been trying very hard to find a job. I contacted over 160 design consultancies, only 11 could be bothered replying to me to tell me they don't have anything, and they don't employ juniors, they only employ middle weight designers with 5-6+ years of experience. I have a few friends that consider themselves lucky to get on a year unpaid internship! It may pick up after the recession but that could take a couple of years, but then i'd be competing with 2 years of graduates that haven't forgot as much as I have.
Whenever I searched on job websites for "product designer" i get either product engineer or web designer. I began to think what would I do if I was doing uni again and i'd still do design ofcourse but I think i'd do graphic or web design, I thought oh that's a shame I can't do uni again... until I came across these home learning courses and realised maybe it's not to late to switch. But instead of starting something blind again, finishing, and having no luck. I thought I better ask some questions. I'd like to thank you for your feedback it's been very informative.
I'm going to ask some local web design agency's what they think, would they employ someone with those qualifications etc. and providing I feel I can get work from completing this course I think I'm going to go ahead with it.
I did compare other courses and the other ones all seem a bit thin,very quick to complete and I don't think they would leave me with much knowledge/confidence in my search for a job. This one looks a lot better, it also has some classroom training days, exam and software included, tutor support by phone and email, and exams you can take when ever your ready.