One still in play – Strategic Designer
On 18 September, the Design Institute of Australia submitted its response to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' draft update to the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA 2027) the standard used to classify every job in national labour force, census and migration data.
The response follows DIA's detailed submission to the same consultation in April, and opens by thanking the ABS for one major win: the inclusion of Service Designer as a newly coded occupation, delivered on the strength of DIA's Make Design Count survey and years of advocacy through DIA's Define Design campaign.
DIA's priority recommendation this round is that Strategic Designer be added alongside it, as a new occupation (242135) within Unit Group 2421 using the same evidence base and mechanism the ABS has already accepted for Service Designer. Without a code, DIA argues, strategic designers stay invisible in national workforce data for at least three years, with consequences for migration processing, graduate outcome reporting and how employers structure careers around the role.
The response also asks for a reciprocal exclusion statement steering design-led strategy practitioners away from the Management Consultant occupation; restores "co-design" and "participatory" language to the Service Designer profile; adds Experience Designer and Customer Experience Designer as recognised alternative titles; and updates the Minor Group 242 lead statement to reflect services and experiences, not only products and graphics. It also re-presents two accuracy fixes from April to the Interior Designer and Textile Designer profiles, and asks that Installation Designer and Exhibition Designer be recognised as specialisations of Interior Designer. Finally, it flags matters for the ABS to consider in the 2028 round, including a full profile for Wayfinding Designer and DIA's longer-term case for a dedicated Service and Strategic Designer unit group.