On a Saturday in October, ScreenSkills joined forces with Creative Futures and games industry partners to host an event about careers in games at 1 Mill Street in Leamington Spa. The masterclasses gave a wealth of useful tips to school students and new entrants wanting to work in games and you can watch them below. Creative Futures are part of Warwick University and provide a gateway between the university and the creative industries in Coventry and Warwickshire. Leamington has been dubbed “Silicon Spa” as it has the highest percentage of games employees in the working-age population in the UK, and over 30 games studios are based in the area.
ScreenSkills worked with with national partners including Next Gen Skills Academy, the BGI, Into Games and regional organisations such as Create Central and Coventry and Warwickshire LEP to put on the event which welcomed young people from local schools in the morning, and new entrants looking to get into the industry in the afternoon.
Careers in the games Industry: Where, why and what?
The morning masterclass, Careers in the games Industry: Where, why and what? was hosted by TV presenter Jordan Erica Webber and one of the panellists, Ella, has already started her career at the age of 15 as a finalist BAFTA Young Game Designers competition. The other panellists were Brandon Cole, from Into Games, Charlotte Pook from Electric Square, and Shivani Rambaran from Triangular Pixels. The audience of young people from local schools learned about the different roles in games and some of the things they can be doing now if they want to work in the industry in the future. One pupil said: “it’s amazing to know there are more jobs than just programming” and another said: “ I really enjoyed having advice from people in the industry”
You can view the recording of that masterclass here
Pathways into the Games industry: Jobs, skills and CVs
The afternoon masterclass, Pathways into the Games industry: Jobs, skills and CVs was hosted by Rick Gibson from the BGI. Rick was joined by Kathleen Brice from Codemasters, Marcia Deakin from NextGen, Chris Mc Carthy from Third Kind Games and Chris Sayers from Mediatonic, a studio which is based in Mill Street. The panel shared their own career journeys and gave advice and tips on CV’s, approaching employers and what to put in a portfolio.
You can view the recording of that masterclass here
Resources and further reading
ScreenSkills have a wealth of information to help signpost pathways into the screen industries in the Starting your career section of the website. Explore our job profiles and career maps for more in-depth descriptions of job roles in the games industry. See our tips for building a portfolio and advice about networking as well as approaching employers. There is also a directory of our Select college and university courses. You can also find a range of online masterclasses and links to useful organisations in our Information and Resources directory. If you are interested in careers in the wider creative industries log onto the Discover! creative careers site which we host with partners.
