This week it was my pleasure to host the BA3 Textile Design Industry Awards event celebrating the final year students' work at Norwich University of the Arts. I established the awards three years ago to create supportive dialogues between students, industry and academics. This is paying off in many ways: building confidence in the students through pitching and receiving professional feedback, providing new ways for the course staff team to work with peers in industry and ensuring we make time to understand and align design thinking, technical ability and professional development on the course with what industry is looking for.