We aim to provide a pre-professional experience for all our students by providing them with direct contact with the businesses, industries and professions that make up the creative economy and by helping entrepreneurial students get their businesses off the ground. To that end, the College – and every programme within it – has thriving relationships with the professions, businesses and industries our students will join when they graduate.

Often relationships with business grow out of existing links made by staff through their own practices outside the College. They create opportunities for students to find placements in industry during vacations and to interact with the business and industry people who visit the College throughout the year. In addition, a series of industry-sponsored projects are generated both within and across programmes by staff. These include prizes and award schemes and sponsorship for exhibitions and publications.

InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art’s centre for business incubation and knowledge transfer.

FuelRCA is the College's professional development hub, which helps students and recent graduates make the transition to a creative working life.

The Centre collaborates with students, graduates and business partners of the College to generate new design thinking that is socially inclusive. See here for further information.

Design London was established by lead partner the Royal College of Art with Imperial College London in 2007, supported by £5.8 million backing from funding bodies HEFCE and NESTA. The venture combined creativity and expertise in design from the Royal College of Art, engineering from Imperial College’s Faculty of Engineering and the business of innovation from Imperial College’s Tanaka Business School. Established following the 2005 Cox Review of Creativity in Business, Design London had four main pillars: creating new teaching programmes, conducting top-level research, incubating new business ideas and pioneering the next generation of innovation technology.

In addition to the RCA’s successful Introduction to Life after the College programme, with practical business courses run centrally by FuelRCA and also from within the programmes themselves, Design London offers Fellowships to RCA students and recent graduates who are aspiring designer entrepreneurs or seeking to enhance their business knowledge and skills. The Fellowships enable students and graduates to participate in selected modules of Tanaka Business School’s prestigious MBA programme and participate in interdisciplinary projects with MBA and MEng students, helping them to transform design-led innovation into investor-ready propositions. The best of these potential propositions become candidates to enter the Design London incubator and gain access to investment, coaching and facilities to turn innovative ideas into high-growth business ventures. See here for further information.

Students often get the chance to flex their creative talents on a competitive basis within their programme or with others across the College, through externally sponsored competitions, award schemes and projects.