Some thoughts on the Livingstone Hope Review

By the time I arrived at today's launch of the Livingstone Hope Review of the skills for the UK video games and visual effects industries, it was standing room only at The Vue Leicester Square. The interesting 90-minute presentation kicked off with a video compilation of key interviews and best practice examples captured during the review. It was followed by presentations from the report's authors: polymath Ian Livingstone (Games Workshop founder, fantasy author, Life President of Eidos) and Alex Hope (co-founder and MD of Double Negative). Finally, for a panel Q&A session, the pair were joined by Ed Vaizey, Hasan Nakhshi from Nesta and John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning.

The report's overall findings didn't come as a great surprise - what with three teenage stepchildren at various stages of secondary and tertiary education in the household - but some individual statistics did shock me:

• 44% of school teachers thought that ICT was the most important subject for a career in the video games industry, while only 5% thought computer science was the most important.
• Computer science isn't part of the national curriculum, although ICT is.
• Of the 28,767 teachers qualified and registered with the GTC in 2010, only three had a primary qualification in computer science or computing.
• The vast majority of young people in particular, but also their parents and teachers, assumed that Grand Theft Auto, Lego Star Wars and Singstar were all developed in the US rather than in the UK (where they actually were developed of course). Ditto for Prince of Persia, Harry Potter and Inception.
• 58% of video games employers report difficulty in filling positions... yet only 12% of graduates from specialist video games courses find a job in the sector within six months of graduating.
• 48% of graduates working in the video games industry have science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) degrees.

Of the 20 or so recommendations, the following struck me as especially strong:

• Computer science should be an essential part of the National Curriculum.
• Sign up the best computer science teachers through bursaries and "golden hellos".
• Encourage art-tech crossover
• Develop kitemarking schemes to differentiate the best HE courses from less industry-relevant ones
• Target funding at strategically important and vulnerable subjects.

The skills needs outlined above aren't specific to the games industry; Microsoft, Google, Facebook and the like also need them. Another much in demand skill set has emerged in the social media world: data analytics. Surely it's time for a fundamental rethink about our educational priorities and how degree courses are marketed to potential students? Maybe with the increase in tuition fees, prospective students will be more curious about graduate employment rates.

Comments

[martin]

As someone who is really interested in working in the video games industry I found this post really interesting. The stats are pretty much in line with what I experience daily. Although you would expect that before you enter into an industry such as video gaming, you would have a background in computer science and more importantly programming. Luckily for me I was able to realise this and choose the right degree which helped me get the job today. My manager keeps complaining that people that apply for job roles feel having a high ranking in call of duty or fifa is a good video gaming achievement. I cant help but laugh every time i hear that. Its also amazing how when these students apply for graduate jobs they never tailor their CV's to reflect their technical abilities. I hope this article would help other people who want to get into this industry.