It is proposed that a progressive Industrial Design education should focus on supporting students in learning to self-manage ambiguity and bolster their agile independence throughout the tentative undergraduate years of growth [1]. As the field of Industrial Design moves beyond its industrial manufacturing roots, exploration of curricula that anticipates contemporary issues such as decolonisation, diverse participation and complexity in creative innovation is still not prevalent in this contemporary period [2]. Such a context necessitates an accelerated disruption to traditional design pedagogical practices [3], as seen in the RMIT University Industrial Design programme My First Six Months (MF6M) -a first-year learner-centred initiative situated around capacity development, student agency, self-efficacy, and disruption of expectations about the power dynamics in learning and teaching. This paper outlines the adoption of the RMIT University, My First 6 Months (MF6M) first-year learnercentred pedagogical alignment into the 2 nd and 3 rd year vertically integrated studio environment, through the case study 'Safeness by Design (SbD)-Enabling an Ageing Workforce'a collaborative partnership with the Innovation Centre of WorkSafe Victoria, a state government safety regulatory body. In curating the studio's outcomes, it became evident that the embedded predispositions developed throughout their MF6M experience, activated the diversity of students' thinking and acting in situations resembling real-world design practice, which achieved our SbD studio's pedagogical ambitions. We found this model to be highly transferable, requiring less teaching staff intervention and giving more flexibility to students, by reinforcing notions of independence, trust and self-efficacy in learning. Students are scaffolded as they dynamically explore and frame their own inquiry questions and continue developing their professional identity throughout their studies. In doing so, the classroom is firmly situated as a safe and democratic creative space, whereby teaching staff adopt a coaching role to establish a collaborative partnership, to further support student capacity and confidence.

An ageing workforce and a dwindling itinerate manual labour supply have long term implications to the commercial viability of industries that require sustained physical activities. The labour recruitment challenges currently facing agricultural, construction, manufacturing and the handling and distribution industries are likely an early indicator of what other industries will face in the future. These trends are driving two significant concerns for an ageing workforce: maintaining the health of increasingly older workers and dealing with the complications of participation in the labour force for these individuals. This paper details a teaching and research project conducted in collaboration between the Safeness by Design initiative and the Innovation Centre of WorkSafe Victoria, a government regulatory body that enforces health and safety policy. The project aimed at moving the sphere of influence of WorkSafe from reactive policing activities towards pre-emptive action, compelling innovation and new discourses on workplace safeness, employment longevity and the empowerment of ageing workers. The project consisted of a research investigation of ageing and wellbeing issues, and workplace safeness, together with a taught component, a design studio that challenged students to consider physiological, behavioural and technological factors in the generation of design proposals for safe and supportive future workplaces that enable and empower an ageing workforce to continue to make a valuable contribution.