Watch this video to find out what GamesEd21 is all about.
Wednesday 31st March to Thursday 1st April 2021
Virtual Summit
BGI has revealed a strong slate of new speakers from leading games and educational organisations to speak at the virtual summit on Wednesday March 31st and Thursday April 1st. BGI has also unveiled student tickets and a raft of diverse young speakers who will talk about their pathways towards games careers.
Full schedule is available here
Speakers include course leaders from the likes of Staffordshire, Bolton, Abertay and Norwich Universities, plus Priestley College, while organisations including Limit Break, Into Games, Out Playing Games, BAME In Games, Next Gen Skills Academy, AIM and Grads In Games will also be provide their unique insights.
In addition, the speaker line-up includes representatives from Aardvark Swift, Amiqus, Codemasters, Playground Games, Creative Assembly, Sumo-Digital, D3T, Fabrik Games, Payload Studios and more.
The Summit is sponsored by Unity, Unreal Engine and Aardvark Swift.
New sessions on day two will include a session on mentorship with current mentors and mentees from Limit Break and Into Games talking about how schemes are helping diverse young people forge their careers in games. Another new session will see recent hires into games development talk about their journeys into the industry. BGI has opened up a low-cost ticket option for students, to give them the opportunity to hear peers talk.
BGI has also announced keynotes from Aurore Dimopoulos from Unity and Simon Nelson, founder and former CEO of the groundbreaking online platform FutureLearn.
Elsewhere, the Summit will look at how recruitment has changed for studios during the pandemic, including top tips from studios who have hired record-breaking numbers of staff over the past 12 months, despite the challenges of Covid. And a new session on C++, moderated by Dr Jake Habgood of Sumo Digital, will feature top industry coders.
GamesEd will end with a report on Games Careers Week, which is winning scores of partners from across the games development and education sectors, and aims to trigger long term change in the way the British public perceive games careers. BGI, Into Games and Grads in Games will report back on the inaugural festival, sharing its impact, reach and examples of events hosted by scores of organisations.
Get your early bird tickets to GamesEd21 at Eventbrite.
Notes to Editors
For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Lisa Carter at lisa@mimrammedia.com and follow @thebgi on Twitter.
About the BGI
The BGI, charity number 1183530, educates the public about the art, science, history and technology of videogames through the National Videogame Museum, online training and other educational programmes such as Games Careers Week. For more details about the BGI, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk.
Thurs 11th Feb 2021: Games Careers Week, the free online festival for inspiring people from every background to discover prospects in one of the UK’s most exciting careers, has announced its initial lineup for the year.
Over 20 events from Grads in Games, BGI / National Videogame Museum, Into Games, Ukie, Women in Games and Tranzfuser have been scheduled between 26 March and 2nd April 2021.
Games Careers Week is packed with events aimed at reaching millions of parents, learners, teachers and job-seekers. Designed to inspire and inform diverse people about career opportunities available within the games industry, the week will showcase scores of online events for all ages and levels of expertise.
Games Careers Week is organised and funded by the charity the BGI and nonprofits Grads in Games and Into Games. The week is trying to tackle low awareness of games career opportunities in the British public, especially amongst diverse groups, and low diversity in the UK games workforce through a pan-industry public education campaign.
You can read all about BGI’s involvement and funding of Games Careers Week here.
The first events are detailed below, with nearly 100 organisations interested in hosting careers events during the festival.
Key events for Games Careers Week 2021
Games Careers Exhibition at the National Videogame Museum [March 26th onwards]: An online careers exhibition for families in which children ask games developers about games careers and educational choices.
Ukie Student Conference [March 26th]: Ukie’s huge event for college and university students returns with a packed programme of talks, keynotes, and Q&As from games developers and educators.
Into Games Portfolio Pitstop [March 27th]: A day of free, essential portfolio advice and tips from dozens of industry professionals for any learner posting their games portfolio on Twitter with the hashtag #portfoliopitstop.
Career Talks at the National Videogame Museum [March 27th onwards]: Livestreams by new Sumo Digital developers for young people and parents to ask questions about how to start games careers.
The Grads In Games Student Conference [March 29th]: A day of speakers from leading studios talking to students about the work they do and what life at a games studio is really like. Includes panels featuring recent grads on how they got their first games job, and a live masterclass session where you can create a perfect CV for applying to games industry roles.
Grads In Games Education Fair [March 30th]: Dozens of universities that offer game development courses will be congregating at our education fair ready to talk with FE, A-Level, and GCSE students about the courses they have to offer.
Gamesindustry.biz Careers Week Features [all week]: A series of careers week content, interviews and discussions will run online during the week.
Grads In Games Career Connector [March 30th]: A new format of online careers fair for the games industry, providing opportunities for studio professionals to be skills-matched with students for private meetings.
Women in Games Career Pathways [all week]: Developers from Women in Games’ pioneering ambassador programme will share their career pathways in a series of online talks for young adults.
Games Education Summit March [31st March to 1st April]: 30 speakers from top studios and games universities gather to share state of the art tips and hear students, mentees, and recent hires reveal their career pathways.
The Grads In Games Awards 2021 [March 31st]: Recognising the people, studios, and educators that have made a real impact in improving the links between the games industry and education, the GiG Awards celebrates the valuable work of those behind the scenes of games education and employability.
Tranzfuser Career talks [all week]: Tranzfuser are hosting a series of live chats for university students focusing on bolstering career paths into professional video game development.
Into Games Champion Sessions [all week]: Into Games’ 12 industry champions, each a diverse representative of their discipline (art, programming, QA, etc) will be running talks and events throughout GCW.
Digital Schoolhouse Games Careers Lesson Pack [all week]: A videogames careers lesson pack in partnership with Into Games bursting with expertise and insightful support for schools including a database of 50 One Minute Mentor careers videos, lesson plans and assembly scripts.
Search For A Star & d3t Rising Star 2021, Winners Announcement [April 1st]: Check out the future stars of the games industry as we announce the winners of this year’s student game dev challenges across programming, art, animation and VFX.
Studios, publishers, educators and members of the industry can get involved by registering at gamescareersweek.org.
About Games Careers Week
Games Careers Week is a non-profit event organised and funded by the BGI, Into Games and Grads in Games, supported by TIGA, NextGen Skills Academy, Gamesindustry.biz and Ukie
About the BGI / National Videogame Museum
The NVM is operated by the BGI, charity number 1183530, which educates the public about the art, science, history and technology of videogames through the museum, training and other educational programmes such as the Games Education Summit. For more details about the BGI, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/about.
About Into Games
Into Games is a non-profit Community Interest Company that supports people in finding rewarding careers in the games sector. Our projects connect education and industry while providing guidance for learners from primary school all the way into work. For more information visit: http://intogames.org
About Grads in Games
Grads in Games is run by a non-profit Community Interest Company which helps graduates make the leap from student to professional in the games industry. It does this through a comprehensive program of events, activities and initiatives which equip students with the skills employers need. For more information about our initiatives such as Search for a Star and Get in the Game visit: www.gradsingames.com.
The Games Education Summit returns for 2021 as a virtual event, taking place on Wednesday March 31st and Thursday April 1st.
Speakers, including leaders from Unity, Playground Games, Fabrik Games, Aardvark Swift, AIM Group, Bolton University, Amiqus, BAME in Games, G Into Games, NextGen Skills Academy, Payload Studios, Nord Anglia Education and Sumo Digital, will share innovative solutions for teaching and nurturing talent, as well as providing advice on supporting students from diverse backgrounds into their careers in games.
Running during Games Careers Week, the virtual event will feature collaborative sessions for studios and educators to engage on games industry education and recruitment issues in the middle of the pandemic.
Covid has caused massive upheaval in education while recruiters have faced challenges in hiring and onboarding the finest new talent to maintain the games industry’s headlong growth.
With Brexit and new immigration rules, it’s never been more important for the UK games industry to nurture home-grown future talent.
The Games Education Summit will tackle these key issues – and more – during a two-day event uniquely curated for games studios, educators and recruiters.
Day 1 will focus on best practice, with innovators and leaders in games companies and education sharing how they’ve successfully adapted their programmes to work during the pandemic. On Day 2 students, interns and young developers will deliver valuable insights into their pathways towards careers in games.
Topics and themes covered will include:
“Education and business have faced the most challenging period in history over the past 10 months,” said Rick Gibson, CEO of the BGI, which hosts the Games Education Summit.
“The games industry has experienced record growth during the pandemic, but it’s not plain sailing. We’re all under pressure from lockdown, hiring from the global talent pool is harder after Brexit and the recruitment and onboarding of new staff has been a challenge for our rapidly growing industry. Education has been significantly affected with further education and universities experiencing huge disruptions from stop/start in-class teaching and the return of home learning for students of all ages. The Games Education Summit brings together influential studios, recruiters and educators to discuss how we nurture the UK’s future games talent.”
Get your tickets to GamesEd21 at Eventbrite.
Notes to Editors
For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Conor Clarke at conor@thebgi.uk and follow @thebgi on Twitter.
About the BGI
The BGI, charity number 1183530, educates the public about the art, science, history and technology of videogames through the National Videogame Museum, online training and other educational programmes such as Games Careers Week. For more details about the BGI, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk.
14/01/2021: Games Careers Week is launching on 26 March 2021 with online events aimed at reaching millions of parents, learners, teachers and job-seekers. Existing events such as the Games Education Summit and Grads in Games Awards will be joined by many new online events such as Into Games Masterclasses, Microsoft’s DigiGirlz day, careers talks and other events from studios like Sumo Digital, Fabrik Games and Playground Games, events at universities like Staffordshire and Bournemouth, a new online careers fair, as well as an exhibition and career talks at the National Videogame Museum.
The new event was created by Into Games, Grads in Games and the BGI, with support from Ukie, NextGen Skills Academy, TIGA and Gamesindustry.biz. Organisers are issuing an open call to industry and academia for careers events from games and educational organisations across the country and will run a town hall meeting on 28 January to share more about the Week and how to join in.
Games Careers Week is designed to tackle two deep-rooted and related problems – workforce diversity and low public recognition of career opportunities in games. Although the games sector has made good progress towards diversifying its workforce in recent years, it is still much less diverse than either the population and the players. In part this is because most parents, young people and career-changers don’t know the UK supports over 25,000 well-paid, creative tech jobs in the rapidly growing games sector. These problems are particularly acute for diverse people and women, who can find starting, restarting or transferring into careers in games difficult.
The Week’s goal is to inspire schoolchildren to choose and study the creative tech skills needed to thrive in the modern world. Parents will be encouraged to challenge gender stereotypes and guide children towards well-paid creative careers. Educators will be guided towards existing resources, accessible games tools so they can teach more STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) skills in classrooms. Job-seekers of all ages will find material to help them prepare to start, maintain and restart careers in games. Games studios will get resource packs to run events and work with schools and universities to share their career opportunities.
27 organisations are already involved but organisers hope that over 50 games organisations will support events across the country and online during the week, with a website – gamescareersweek.org – signposting careers information provided by the organisers and many others during the week and year round. The campaign is being supported by media company Shift6 and is funded by the BGI, IntoGames and Grads in Games.
Claire Boissiere, Vice Chair of the BGI: “There’s such a rich diversity of games training and career programmes across the games industry, but it can be difficult for the public to find them. This Games Careers Week will convene, signpost and promote all those amazing programmes to young people, parents, educators and anyone thinking of a change in career, so they’re easier to find and more accessible to people from any background in the UK”.
Declan Cassidy, CEO of Into Games: “We want Games Careers Week to inspire, delight and surprise, but the event also carries an important and hopeful message that a rewarding job in games is possible no matter your background. A big part of this is providing support and guidance for teachers, careers advisors, and parents, and we hope that in 5-years time when mum and dads are asked what they want their kids to be when they grow up, they might just say, ‘doctor, scientist, lawyer….game developer!’ ”
Andy Driver, Operations Manager of Grads in Games: “There are so many incredible people and organisations offering support when it comes to getting a job in the games industry and Games Careers Week is going to be a fantastic resource to get access to this. By collaborating together, it is the students, children, parents and job seekers who benefit the most and I hope we can inspire the next generation of game developers.
To get involved with Games Careers Week, register at gamescareersweek.org to receive information about the Week and the Town Hall Meeting.
The charity’s trustees are delighted to welcome Albert Marshall to the board. Albert brings a wealth of experience in games, technology, governance and the law.
Albert Marshall has worked in the games industry for over two decades. First, as a lawyer at PlayStation and then at Take-Two Interactive, owner of the Rockstar and 2K Games labels. In 2012 he set up Marshall Media, a legal and business affairs consultancy providing advice to a wide range of games developers, publishers and other creative and technology companies. A qualified barrister, Albert is also a non-executive director for the London Mutual Credit Union and has served as a BAFTA Games Awards juror.
Sheffield 08/12/2020: The BGI has welcomed 3 new staff for the National Videogame Museum and the charity’s other programmes.
Claire Mead joins as Programme Manager and manages the curatorial and education teams to deliver exhibitions, learning activities and the NVM’s Collection.
Tope Imevbore is appointed Head of Finance, where she is responsible for financial reporting, projections and annual accounts for the charity.
Mikey Pennington is a new curator for the National Videogame Museum working on exhibitions for the NVM and driving the Videogame Heritage Society network.
You can meet all the BGI’s team here.
The BGI is delighted and grateful to be supported by Jingle Jam 2020. The charity fundraising event is delivered by Yogscast, with support from Twitch and Tiltify.
The BGI is fundraising to train thousands of young people how to make videogames, with a special focus on disadvantaged schoolchildren worst affected by Coronavirus.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, all schoolchildren have fallen months behind in their studies, but children from the most deprived areas are now years behind.
With this funding we will inspire students to make games in our award-winning courses, rekindle their self-confidence and re-engage with their studies.
The Jingle Jam is a festive charity stream on Twitch, which can be watched here (parental advisory warning). Members of the Yogscast are streaming 12 hours a day every day from the 1st to the 14th December to raise funds for 12 charitable causes including the National Videogame Museum.
If you would like to donate to the Jingle Jam cause, please go to jinglejam.tiltify.com. Donating more than £25 will also see you receive a huge bundle of games, from developers such as Innersloth, Chucklefish and Jackbox games.
Since it started in 2011, Jingle Jam has raised an astounding $17.6 million for over 80 different charitable causes. We are so proud to be involved this year.
We are proud and excited to announce that the National Videogame Museum’s education programme has been chosen as one of the charities that Jingle Jam will support in 2020.
Spanning the two weeks from 1-14 December, this year’s Jingle Jam charity gaming event will see streamers across the globe raise funds for 12 non-profit causes via The Jingle Jam 2020 Games Bundle and other activities.
As of 3rd December 2020, JingleJam has already raised over £1,000,000.
Those who donate more than £25 will be eligible for a reward, which includes over 40 games, generously donated by developers such as Innersloth, Chucklefish and Jackbox games. You can find more information about the reward here: https://jinglejam.tiltify.com/
The charity is so grateful for this support and send a massive thank you to the team at Yogscast, Honest PR and all of the games companies that are getting involved.
We intend to focus any funds raised on our award-winning educational programmes, especially on those focused on helping disadvantaged children left behind during the pandemic to catch up with their studies.
Find out more about our educational programme here and Jingle Jam here.
The NVM has closed to observe the second national lockdown starting November 3rd and currently ending 2nd December.
This sad news followed a very successful half term, where the NVM sold 86% of all tickets and welcomed over 700 visitors. We had some lovely feedback from people wanting to let us know not just how good a time they had but how safe they felt in our venue.
The NVM’s safety procedures were developed through consultation with our visitors and staff and have been working so well.
While our audience cannot visit in person, our team is gearing up to restart our award winning online programme which offers more ways to play and learn at home, so watch this space for more news on our new lockdown activities.
https://thenvm.org/learning/learn-at-home/
https://thenvm.org/learning/pixelheads/
https://www.youtube.com/thenationalvideogamemuseum
