The call came at a  Westminster Media Forum Keynote Seminar on the UK computer games industry,  following on a games industry lobby group warning that UK games developers are struggling to find staff, as dedicated video games courses are failing to equip  graduates with the right skills for the workplace.

Speaking at the Forum, Kate O'Connor, executive director of policy and development at Skillset, said university applications for Skillset accreditation for games development courses "trickled" in when the scheme was first launched, and "have now completely stopped".

O'Connor said: "What we'd like to see happen now [from industry] is an energetic approach to accrediting the kitemark that the industry's developed, that the industry's willing to support, that the industry's spent time promoting - and would like a push to support the higher education institutions… This is about providing incentives for higher education to work more closely with industry."

Anthony Watts, a student at the University of Glamorgan doing a BSC (Hons) in Computer Games - one of Skillset's kitemarked courses - said students would welcome industry getting more involved in syllabus creation and development - or 'educating the educators' - if it meant they could graduate confident they have the necessary skills for employment.

Watts said: "Skill requirements vary widely from company to company - [so] it can be very difficult for an academic institution to tailor an appropriate syllabus that will be attractive across the board."  He pointed out that many UK grads are seeking work abroad in countries such as Canada where prospects can be better - and said the UK games industry must therefore play its part in ensuring skilled and talented grads don't go elsewhere.

Mary Matthews, strategy and business development director of Blitz Games Studios, conceded skills shortages in the UK "are constraining our business". She said job applicants from overseas made up 9% last year but, up to July this year, are 27%. "We can't do what we want to do, because we can't find the right people," she said. "UK graduates who come to us don't have the right portfolios, they don't have the skillsets we're looking for."

Matthews said Blitz invests about 4% of its salary bill in training and outreach, and while she said this is an area in which every business should invest. "What concerns us is the level we are having to invest..... to bring people up to even the basic level - and that's taking about 1% of that spend."

Internal initiatives include an academy to pass on skills through peer-to-peer mentoring, and "an apprenticeship finishing school for young programmers who perhaps don't quite have the skillset we need ". Of the six people taken on that scheme last year, all of them have stayed at Blitz.

Source:http://management.silicon.com
Full story:http://tinyurl.com/64vv7j
Web: http://www.skillset.org/
http://www.blitzgames.com