Its educations fault that we(the games industry) don’t get the right students. Education is doing more harm than good selling a dream with courses that aren’t fit for purpose. A post I’d seen on LinkedIn and thought hmmm well in Scotland at least we are trying to get industry involved.

But lets break that down. Maybe courses are getting outdated just maybe BUT there are some who care enough and have been shouting from the rooftops about it over the past couple of years within the Scottish College Sector – SGEN has been the leading voice over the past couple of years in campaigning for a more updated HN Qualification in Scotland. However, one voice that has been missing? Industry. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is listening and although going through changes is still listening to what we have to say.

Over the past 3 years we have ran an Education Symposium as part of Scottish Games week with Scottish Games Network and last year SGEN & SGN held the event at West College Scotland’s Paisley campus. The purpose of this was firstly to get those who teach in college and university to start talking to each other but then involve industry to find out what’s needed. However, while getting all the educators together was easier than expected and a much-needed boost for us all as we realised, we all have the same issues teaching in the long run, it has proven a bit more difficult to get the industry voice involved.

We want industry to say what they think students should be learning but we also want industry to understand how courses are developed as well and realise the constraints we are up against in education and they have been invited at every step of the way yet its been hard to get engagement (bar one or two folk you know who you are).

Teamworking and communication skills are something we are always telling our students are so important for their future employment and yet I feel both are lacking from the actual industry I want my students to succeed in when trying to foster better relationships and find out how the curriculum can be improved to help industry (where feasibly possible).

Dear industry PLEASE talk to us we want to work together.