The 17th International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED'09, was held August 24-27 2009 at Stanford University, California, USA. The Conference is the flagship event of the Design Society, a society dedicated to contributing to a broad and established understanding of development and design. The ICED series of conferences has a long tradition, which started in 1981 with the first ICED in Rome. A total of 379 papers were presented at ICED 09, each double-blind reviewed by multiple reviewers. The papers included research papers and case studies on a variety of topics concerned with design thinking, theory, and practice, with a premium placed on evidence-based research. The papers are published in a total of ten volumes of Proceedings, in addition to electronic publication. This volume contains 30 papers concerned with Design Education and Lifelong Learning, considering all sorts of issues involved in the formation and training of designers and the nurturing and assessment of design skills. "