Above all, students of applied sciences need to be well prepared for their professional life and thus we ask ourselves at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (FHS): "How adequately can a programme course simulate the challenges faced by a graduate designer or product manager?" One mandatory master course, the Interdisciplinary Group Project (IGP), aims to address just this and links companies and design talents with challenging tasks in the fields of industrial design, service design and marketing. The project requires students to: (1.) complete four independent and commercial design projects under time pressure (2.) know all important functions of an interdisciplinary design team hands-on (3.) learn to take on responsibility for certain tasks by slipping into four different roles (4.) form teams and handle complex human relations (5.) gain insight into different internal processes and structures of companies, depending on their organization, purpose and size. To verify our assumption of the course's effectiveness for preparing the student for professional life, alumni and partner companies participated in a qualitative assessment. Both graduates and project partners responded positively to the course topics and its accuracy as mirror of work life. Afterwards, the results were summarised and displayed in a SWOT analysis for a consolidated view on the course's current status.
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