Lionhead takes games education into its own hands

British development powerhouse Lionhead will next week launch a work experience programme for local students, the studio has announced.

The Guildford group said it wants to help the British development sector link closer with academia, and inspire young people to build games for a living.

Students from local schools can undertake work experience on-site and will be able to try out “all of the six main disciplines of making a game”.

Each student will have a personal mentor to work with, Lionhead said.

“The video games industry offers a huge variety of career opportunities, but it is very intense and hectic,” said Lionhead producer Jemma Harris.

“It has been challenging to understand how we could offer a really worthwhile experience to young people in a busy fast-paced working environment. Staff here have worked closely with teachers at Woking Sixth Form College to come up with a program which will showcase the diversity, creativity and excitement of games development,” she added.

“We hope that we will encourage talented students to seriously consider the games industry as a career option.”

Lionhead’s partnership with local academic institutions is a key guiding principle of the Livingstone-Hope Review, a government-backed report on how games education can improve.

Of the twenty recommendations in the Skills Review [found here], one asks studios to “use video games at school to draw greater numbers of young people into STEM and computer science”.

Another says game developers should “raise awareness of the video games and visual effects industries in the eyes of STEM and arts graduates.”

Lionhead said it would work closely with local schools and colleges to ensure an influx of students come through.