Games industry included in government skills funding program

The UK video games, visual effects and animation industry has joined forces for a new training program backed by a multi-million pound investment.

It’s called the Next Gen Skills Academy and has been backed by 6.5m of investment via the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to develop the next generation of talented animators, games designers and visual effects artists”.

2.7m of this comes from the Government and 3.6m from employer investment. Among its goals is the aim of developing new nationally-recognised qualifications.

It is expected that the project will deliver more than 1000 training courses, including short-courses, taster sessions and continual personal development, delivered by industry-assured trainers”.

Among those involved are Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Ubisoft Reflections and Pinewood Studios.

The UK’s creative industries are amongst the strongest in the world, worth 71.4bn per year to the UK economy and supporting more than 1.7m jobs,” business secretary Vince Cable said.

Visual effects and games in particular are a great British success story. But if we’re to maintain our cutting-edge position, we need to make sure that we have the talent and skills the industry needs. That why the Creative Industries Strategy places skills development as a key priority for the future growth of this important sector.”