UK games industry

Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, today called on the Government to take further steps to increase the supply and quality of graduates available for work in the games industry and for developers and education providers to work more closely together. Wilson made the comments while delivering the keynote speech at the Develop Conference’s Games EDU session.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said:

“The games development sector has suffered from skill shortages in recent years. A Tiga survey of game developers last year showed that 63 per cent of respondents had faced skills shortages over the previous 12 months.”

“Last month, TIGA instigated the creation of the All Party Group on the Computer and Video Games Industry in the Westminster Parliament. The Group will be interested in advancing practical proposals to tackle the educational and skills issues that the video games industry is facing.”

TIGA recommends the All Party Group and the Government consider the case for:

- Giving schools greater financial freedom so that they can pay higher salaries to attract the best teachers in, for example, mathematics or computer science

- Encouraging more schools to teach computer programming

- Promoting the video games industry as a career option at school, not least to encourage more young people to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects

- Introducing a pilot programme whereby the tuition fees for students studying mathematics and computer science are reduced to give students a greater incentive to study these subjects and so increase the potential supply of graduates in disciplines critical to the games industry

- Establishing a TIGA managed Games-Education Fund to promote industrial secondments, Research Fellowships, education outreach and knowledge transfer, and the accreditation of Centres of Teaching Excellence in higher education.

Notes to editors:

1. 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.

2. 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 Whitlow, TIGA PR Manager on: 07814 039 983, or email eva@tiga.org.