Skills Review to go national with BBC TV coverage

The games industry will get its chance to speak to the nation next week, with the BBC’s Newsnight programme scheduled to run a feature on the Livingstone-Hope Skills Review.

The Department for Education is due to break its eight-month silence on the Skills Review paper, which launched in February this year and called for computer science to return to the national curriculum.

Ahead of the department’s response, on Monday Newsnight will run a feature on the paper itself and the Education Department’s position.

The Skills Review, co-written by games industry figurehead Ian Livingstone (pictured, right), as well as skills group NESTA, was fully endorsed by culture minister Ed Vaizey upon release.

Many in the UK games industry claim they are hamstrung by the so-called ‘brain-drain’, with graduates too often ill-equipped for employment at games studios.

The Skills Review made twenty key proposals that, it claimed, could revive fortunes.

[FEATURE: HOW TO REVOLUTIONISE GAME EDUCATION IN TWENTY STEPS]

Backed by overwhelming support from the industry itself, Livingstone has met with ministers and MPs across many government departments to discuss the matter.

The Department for Education and its secretary Michael Gove (pictured, left) has declined repeated meeting requests by Livingstone.