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Practical service design

Apply to your own practice

Practical Service Design Certified Course

A 25-week accredited journey to global recognition.
  • 25 weeks
  • Working level
  • Online only

On this page

Overview

This extended and improved version of our original Practical Service Design course is now delivered in partnership with the Service Design Network (SDN).
It’s industry-focused, hands-on, and prepares you to do service design in practice, earning SDN Practitioner Accreditation, an individual certification that is recognised worldwide.

25 weeks of learning

In around five months, you'll become an accredited service design practitioner.

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2-4 hours per week

Each week, you'll be involved in self-study, reflection, team sessions, mentoring, and design activity.

Live online learning

You'll attend 12 half-day online interactive classes (36 hours) hosted on Teams and Miro.

Supported self-study

Between classes, you'll deepen your understanding, while receiving support from our expert educators.

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Practical experience

You'll work on a real service design project, helping you apply your learning in a meaningful way.

Assessment

You'll be assessed by CV submission, course completion, presentation, and multiple-choice exam.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for professionals who want to:
  • Build deep, practical service design skills
  • Gain globally recognised SDN Practitioner Accreditation
  • Lead service design projects with confidence and impact
Whether you work in public services, private enterprise, or the third sector, you’ll leave ready to apply service design in real-world contexts.

How will this course help you?

By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to apply service design to your own practice.
Pending successful completion, you'll leave with SDN Practitioner Accreditation alongside two-year SDN Professional Membership with access to global networks and events, Touchpoint journal, and a library of service design case studies.

Course structure

This course is structured to follow the Double Diamond design process. Over 25 weeks, you'll take part in a structured learning experience that blends hands-on training, self-led learning, and formal assessment.

Two weeks

Getting to know each other

You'll get to know SDA and your fellow learners.

We'll cover the course structure, provide an overview of your learning, and discuss the assessment requirements.

Over two weeks

  • 1 live online class
  • 2-4 hours self-led study

Four weeks

Introduction to service design

You’ll start by learning the fundamentals of service design, including principles of good services.

We'll begin a design challenge that will run throughout the course. You'll form teams and develop a user research plan.

Over four weeks

  • 2 live online classes
  • 4-8 hours self-led study, team work, and reflection

Four weeks

User research and data analysis

You'll reconnect with your team, sharing the data you've captured during your self-study weeks.

We'll introduce service design tools to help make sense of the data that you've captured, so you can understand and refine your research themes.

After identifying themes and problems from your research data, all the information gathered by each team will be formed into opportunity statements.

Over four weeks

  • 2 live online classes
  • 4-8 hours self-led study, team work, and reflection

Four weeks

Ideation and problem solving

Your opportunity statements will feed into ideation where the teams will generate multiple ideas to solve their identified problems.

We'll introduce service design tools for collaborative and creative idea generation. 

Over four weeks

  • 2 live online classes
  • 4-8 hours self-led study, team work, and reflection

Four weeks

Prototyping and feedback

This session will begin with an introduction to prototyping. We'll explore its uses within the design process and examples of different prototyping methods.

Each team will prototype their chosen ideas and gather critical feedback to iterate or improve on them.

Over four weeks

  • 2 live online classes
  • 4-8 hours self-led study, team work, and reflection

Two weeks

Implementation and storytelling

We'll begin to explore how each of your team’s final ideas could be delivered and implemented.

Teams will use tools and methods for sharing service stories, which can help you gain buy-in for new projects, ideas. and the service design process.

You'll reflect on your understanding of the service design process, equipping you to apply it in your professional practice.

Over two weeks

  • 1 live online class
  • 2-4 hours self-led study and completion of an online multiple-choice exam

Four weeks

Individual presentation

We'll cover the final presentation assessment requirements, allowing time for questions and support.

This will prepare you for your individual presentation of the design challenge project that you have worked on throughout the course.

Over four weeks

  • 1 live online class
  • 4-8 hours self-led study, team work, and reflection
  • Assessed presentation

Teaching and certification

This is an interactive course delivered by service design experts who are highly experienced in training with a learn-by-doing approach. This course is taught in English.
Service Design Network

Service Design Network Practitioner Accreditation

This course is delivered in partnership with SDN, which means you will leave the course with SDN Practitioner Accreditation and two years of Professional Membership.
Learn more about Practitioner Accreditation

Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

This course aligns with the skills defined by the UK Government as required for the role of Service Designer at Working Level.
Learn more about the capability framework

Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD)

This course aligns with the Scottish Government's approach to the definition, design and delivery of public services.
Learn more about the SAtSD

Equipment

You will need a computer with a fast and reliable connection to the internet, a camera, and a microphone.

To ensure the best possible experience for yourself and others, we recommend that your wear a headset to provide clarity of sound and improved live captions for those who use them.

Tools

We deliver our training using Microsoft Teams and Miro.

There is no requirement for you to install this software or create an account in advance of the course.

Although both tools are available as downloadable apps which may enhance your experience, each is available on the web in your browser.

Cost and payment

Online

£ 2940

GBP

£2450 excluding VAT

What's included

  • All course fees
  • Accreditation and certification
  • 2 years SDN Professional Membership
  • Learning content, tools, and templates

Discounted places

We offer discounted places for groups, organisations and individuals to help with the cost of attending this course.
If you are facing financial challenges
We offer a 10% discount on this course for people experiencing financial challenges.

You may be eligible for a discounted place if you are:

  • In receipt of benefits or on a reduced income
  • Under 25, or a full-time student
  • A freelancer, sole trader, or small business owner in your first year of trading
  • Able to demonstrate personal circumstances that makes paying the full course fee a significant barrier to your participation.
Apply for an individual discount
If you are facing systemic discrimination
We offer a 10% discount on this course for people who are under-represented or under-invested in within the digital, design, and education sectors.

This is a self-identified process based on trust and a commitment to promoting diversity. You may be eligible for a discounted place if you identify as belonging to:

  • People of the global majority
  • Disabled and neurodivergent people
  • LGBTQIA+ people.
Apply for an individual discount

Groups booking multiple places

At our discretion, we offer a 5% discount on this course to groups of 3-5 colleagues.

Service design is a team activity! If you'd like to join a public course and learn with your colleagues, we can provide a 10% discount to help you bring at least two additional colleagues.

For groups larger than 5, speak to us about a customised course.

Book multiple places

Organisations facing financial challenges

We offer a 10% discount on this course to small third-sector organisations and organisations delivering public good who are facing financial challenges.

This includes charities with an annual income under £1 million and organisations delivering public good who are struggling to cover costs or issue a statement of going concern.

Request discounted places

Book your place

Online - June 2026

Register interest to be notified when booking opens for our next cohort.
Register interest