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HCD Lab @ School · International and UAE schools
Design thinking for IB, Cambridge and UAE schools.
Your curriculum already asks students to design for real people. HCD Lab gives them the habits underneath it: observing, questioning, finding the real problem and testing ideas against evidence. A year-long programme from DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, run alongside your own design subject.
How it fits
Alongside your design subject, not instead of it.
HCD Lab does not replace your board's subject or its assessment. It strengthens the part of design that is hardest to teach: understanding people and reasoning from evidence.
| Your curriculum | What it asks of students | What HCD Lab adds |
|---|---|---|
| IB MYP Design | Inquire, develop and create solutions, and test them | Field research with real people, problem framing and a handwritten design journal |
| IB DP Design Technology | A revised course built around the design thinking process and end users (first assessment May 2027) | Practice in user research and defending design decisions before a jury |
| Cambridge IGCSE Design & Technology | Design and make products with user needs in mind; problem-solving across design challenges | Structured research and testing with users before making |
| UK national curriculum, Key Stages 1–3 | Design and make products that solve real problems for particular users | A year-long cycle from observation to a tested idea |
| UAE Ministry of Education | Design and Technology from Grade 3 | A method that links design work to students' own school and community |
Students' journals and project reports can support coursework evidence, as your teachers decide. HCD Lab is not a qualification of any board.
How it runs
The same programme, in your calendar.
Delivery
Three ways to run it
In your timetable (from 100 students), a five-day block per cohort of 30, or the same five days at weekends and holidays.
Delivery optionsTeachers
Your teachers grow into it
DIC Hub faculty and HCD facilitators begin it, with your teachers co-teaching. Teacher training through the Faculty Training Programme is agreed in the MoU.
Faculty Training ProgrammeStudents
A week at DIC Hub
Students can also join the five-day immersion at DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, with a separate fee.
School immersionFor UAE schools
Planned around the UAE school year.
UAE schools follow a three-term calendar with breaks in winter and spring. We plan HCD Lab around it, in your timetable (from 100 students), as a five-day block per cohort of 30 within a term, or the same five days in a break.
Calendar
Three terms, planned in advance
We fix dates with you at the start of the year, clear of assessments and national holidays.
Format
Blocks or breaks
A five-day block per cohort of 30, or the same five days in a school break. Faculty travel is agreed in the MoU.
Curriculum
Alongside UAE Design and Technology
HCD Lab runs next to the UAE Ministry of Education design subject and your own curriculum. It is not a UAE qualification.
FAQ
Questions from international schools.
Does HCD Lab replace MYP Design or IGCSE Design & Technology?
Which grades can join?
Who teaches it in a school outside India?
What certificate do students receive?
Where can our teachers train?
Where can I read every question and answer?
Every board
Whichever board you follow, design is already in it.
CBSE, IB, Cambridge, ICSE and the UK and UAE curricula all ask schools to teach students to design for real people. HCD Lab gives every board the same foundation: understanding the people a design is for, finding the real problem, and testing ideas against evidence. It runs alongside your board's own subject, in the same grades.
- CBSE · Design Thinking & InnovationA skill module in Classes 6–8 and skill subjects 422 (Classes 9–10) and 848 (Classes 11–12), with no fee to CBSE to introduce them.↗
- IB · MYP DesignStudents solve design problems by inquiring, developing and creating solutions, and testing them.↗
- IB · DP Design TechnologyA revised course built around the design thinking process and the needs of end users. First teaching August 2025, first assessment May 2027.↗
- Cambridge · IGCSE Design & Technology (0445)Students design and make products with user needs in mind, and apply problem-solving to design challenges.↗
- UK national curriculum · Design and technologyKey Stages 1–3: pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems for particular users.↗
- CISCE · ICSE and ISCICSE (Class 10) and ISC (Class 12) schools. HCD Lab adds the thinking that comes before building: what to make, and for whom.↗
- UAE · Ministry of EducationDesign and Technology introduced as a subject from Grade 3, announced in 2018.↗
CBSE schools: see Circular 49/2022 for the Classes 6–8 module, the curricula for subject 422 and subject 848, and CBSE's Skill Education page.
HCD Lab is a programme of DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad and HCD Institute. It supports these subjects but is not a qualification of any board, and it does not replace a board's own assessment.
International and UAE schools