Skill shortage discussion to be held at Games:Edu

UK games industry group Tiga is set to address the issue of skill shortages at the upcoming Games:Edu event during the Develop Conference.

“UK game developers typically employ highly qualified, experienced and creative people. At the same time, many game developers report skill shortages when recruiting,” said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

“Games:Edu is a perfect platform to discuss what steps we need to take at a national and local level to provide the games industry with the skilled workforce that it needs to compete successfully,” he added.

Games:Edu is aimed to bring together industry and academia to exchange ideas and widen each other’s perspective. It will commence on Tuesday July 14 in Brighton as part of the Develop Conference which will open on the same day and end July 16.

Organisers Pixel-Lab add that the event will feature keynote speeches and presentations from Sony, Microsoft, Skillset, the IGDA, Tiga and Blitz Game Studios, and will be supported by some of the UK’s foremost games educators from universities including Abertay and Newport.

The initiative will see ‘Skillset Sessions’ comprised of roundtable discussions to allow everyone to voice their issues.

“While I do get to visit many universities in the course of my job, rarely will I find people from so many institutions involved in games development in the same place,” said Sarah Lemarié, Academic Liaison for SCEE.

“Games:EDU is an essential event in my calendar, because Similarly for universities it is a great chance to meet with many contacts in the industry, which is exactly what they need.

Early bird rates see a strong reduction in ticket prices; down from £95 to 25.

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