The association for the people and businesses of Sheffield's digital industries.

talent 23, a year of talent and skills

a year of talent and skills

Games Ed 21 is coming

by Claire Fletcher

An event for games studios, educators and recruiters will tackle the challenges of training and hiring talent into the games industry.

The Games Education Virtual Summit (Games Ed 21) returns this year on Wednesday 31 March and Thursday 1 April . You can join sessions with studios, educators and students, who will be sharing innovative approaches and best practice around recruiting and building careers in the games industry. In particular, it’s a chance for those working, training and recruiting in the industry to come together and tackle the challenges in hiring and onboarding talent during the pandemic. Early-bird tickets are available until 25 February and educators, third sector workers and students can access further discounted rates.

The Summit is organised by the BGI and is just one of the events happening during Games Careers Week, designed to inspire people from all backgrounds to discover careers in one of the UK’s fastest-growing creative sectors.

As the tech sector and UK games industry adjust to new immigration rules (explained in this post), which make it more difficult to recruit from outside of the UK, this event will shine a light on best practices for nurturing home-grown talent.

On day 1 you can hear from leaders of studios and training centres about how they’ve successfully adapted their programmes during the pandemic, to maintain the games industry’s headlong growth.

On day 2, students, interns and young developers will talk about their pathways towards careers in games, and what they need from educators and studios.

You’ll hear from Unity, Playground Games, Fabrik Games, Payload Studios, Aardvark Swift, AIM Group, Bolton University, Amiqus, Into Games, BAME in Games, G Into Gaming, NextGen Skills Academy, Nord Anglia Education and one of Sheffield Digital’s Founder Members, Sumo Digital. Speakers will share solutions for teaching and nurturing talent, as well as providing advice on supporting students from diverse backgrounds into a career in games.

Topics and themes will include:

  • Ready, Player… Learn – The future of learning in a post-Covid world
  • Diversity: How games studios and educators are changing the profile of the workforce
  • State of the art games recruitment: How studios have worked with educators to identify and hire new talent during the pandemic
  • Covid course curation: Further & Higher educators at the cutting edge share their tips and tricks
  • Pathways to games in a pandemic: New hires into games studios share how they transitioned into their jobs
  • The new apprenticeships and internships
  • ‘My Student Journey’ – Students feedback on their own experiences.

Early-bird ticket prices range from £75 to £99 for schools, educators, individuals and businesses, and students can get a ticket for £12.49 during the early-bird sale, which ends on 25 February.

You can read more about the Games Education Virtual Summit 2021 and buy your tickets here.