UK games industry

February 4th 2010

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, today set out a plan for ensuring that the video games industry has the skilled workforce that it needs to compete. TIGA made the comments in response to a tweet posted by the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP on his twitter account, inviting comments on how to support the skills needs of the video games industry.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said:

“The UK video games industry competes on quality, which in turn is determined by the skills and potential of developers in the sector. We need to ensure that our education system generates still more excellent employees for our industry.

“We need to use strong financial incentives to attract the best graduates to teach in schools; greater flexibility in the national curriculum to give schools the freedom to teach subjects such as computer science; and information about a career in the video games industry in school to encourage more young people to stick with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. In tertiary education, tuition fees for mathematics and computer science students should be reduced to incentivise students to study these disciplines. Encouraging more staff exchanges between business and academia through the use of industrial secondments could also generate benefits for both sides, including enhancing the quality of UK higher education.

Jason Kingsley, Chairman of TIGA and CEO and Creative Director of Rebellion, said:

“The UK games industry competes on the basis of high quality skills. We cannot have a highly skilled workforce and a knowledge economy on the cheap. Our key competitors spend substantially more on higher education. Canada, South Korea and the USA spend between 2.5 per and 2.9 per cent on tertiary institutions, compared to approximately 1 per cent in the UK. The UK needs to increase the proportion of GDP devoted to tertiary education and to spend it well.”

ENDS

About TIGA:

TIGA is the trade association representing the UK’s games industry. The majority of our members are either independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also have outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities amongst our membership.

TIGA's vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. We focus on three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members. This means that Tiga members are effectively represented in the corridors of power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities.

For further information, please contact: Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO on: 0845 0941095; Mob: 07875 939643; or Email: richard.wilson@tiga.org, or, Eva Field, TIGA PR Manager on: 07814 039 983, or email eva@tiga.org