英国高等教育界与游戏行业探讨双方如何更好地合作

原作者：Christopher Dring 译者：Vivian Xue

英国游戏行业与高等教育之间的关系不太乐观。事实上，它们曾经互相敌对。

然而，面对日益严峻的人才危机、多样化人才需求的增长以及英国脱欧进程带来的隐患，双方显然意识到了加强合作的重要性。

本周，英国游戏协会（British Games Institute）举办了一场峰会，旨在搭建游戏行业与教育界的沟通桥梁，共同探讨在当前体制下如何提高学生素质，实现学生从大学校园到工作岗位的顺利过渡。

以下是本次峰会上，教育者们提出的关于英国游戏行业如何与教育界更好合作的八项建议。

1. 提供更多实习机会

现场的教育者们纷纷呼吁游戏行业为大二、大三的本科生提供更多实习机会。

朴次茅斯大学教授Peter Howell说，那些参与实习的学生“往往能取得比之前更好的学业成绩”。不仅如此，他发现那些实习一年的学生提升了软技能（情商、沟通能力、社交礼仪等）和对社会的认识。伦敦大学金史密斯学院的讲师Federico Fasce当即表示赞同。

伯明翰城市大学教授Carlo Harvey补充说道：“游戏行业如今赶超了音乐、影视行业，应承担起培育学生的责任。游戏公司在这方面很为难，考虑到投资压力和回报率，他们想要能够立刻上岗创造效益的人。”

这的确是问题所在——至少从某种程度上是。并不是所有游戏公司都有资本招纳实习生，但教育者们提出了几个解决方案。

“我们有很多闲置资源，”Harvey教授说，“在暑期，游戏实验室是空闲的，也许开发商们可以安排几个员工在实验室组建一个迷你工作室。”

Howell教授补充说道：“也许企业可以拓宽实习日期。当前实习期是从9月到次年6/7月。但我们有很多学生可以进行更短期的实习，3个月，1个月，甚至1周的见习……这些都有助于学生了解实际工作。”

2. 组织更多的限时游戏开发活动(game jams)和招聘会

Federico Fasce赞赏了Media Molecule工作室组织的限时游戏开发活动。他说这种活动促进了团队的形成并鼓励学生们进行合作。教育者们还呼吁游戏开发者们参加招聘会，做演讲并和学生一对一交流。

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从游戏公司的角度来看，game jams是他们在招聘毕业生时很看重的一条经历。

3. 游戏从业者到高校做宣讲——甚至参与教学

许多游戏从业者都到高校宣讲过。教育者们在会上表示，他们欢迎任何游戏从业者——上至公司主管，下至实习6个月的毕业生到学校做演讲：“如果你一年能抽出15、20分钟到当地的高校做演讲，这会对学生们产生很大的影响。给他们一些指导。哪怕Top10%的学生也需要一些指导。”

阿伯泰大学教授Ruth Falconer进一步说道，建立游戏行业与学术界联系的最佳方式就是聘请行业人才进入高校参与教学工作。

4. 降低职业入门门槛

游戏行业的入门门槛是人们在会上指出并讨论的重点问题。

招聘者们不断强调简历的丰富性，甚至比学习成绩还重要。然而，教育者们认为这种要求对于那些家庭条件优越的学生来说没有问题，但对于那些除学业外还要兼顾家庭和工作的学生来说是一个巨大负担。

教育者们希望招聘部门多多考虑学生们面临的挑战。对此，招聘者们的回答是，如果学生在学业成绩和丰富经历之间进行抉择，他们建议学生们选择后者。

5. 考虑学徒制

学徒制（Apprenticeships）对游戏行业来说是个相对新鲜的概念，但它的作用是巨大的,“下一代”技术学院（NextGen Skills Academy）的Marcia Deakin认为。她说学徒制的周期非常短，最短18个月即可结束。

Framestore（英国著名特效制作公司）的Amy Smith说，学徒制的竞争力自然比不上全日制，但它提供了一个通过招聘渠道进入公司工作的机会。她说尽管企业需要承担管理培训工作，这可能会对公司运营造成一些影响——但在优秀导师的指引下，学徒们将快速适应手头的工作。

6. 参与学术研究

伯恩茅斯大学教授Charlie Hargood强烈呼吁游戏行业参与高校学术研究。

“这也是教育过程的一部分，”他说，“那些博士后学生未来将成为游戏领域的专家。”

他希望行业人士协助指导学术研究，探讨行业面临的普遍问题，这样才能促进学术研究“走出高校，走进行业”，推动产学研一体化。

这一讨论随后延伸至了人才多样化，话题小组成员谈论了高校研究将如何帮助他们克服游戏公司招聘问题。

最后，伦敦传媒学院教授Chris Lowthorpe说道：“我们必须努力建立有意义的合作，推动英国游戏行业未来的发展。我们必须通过教育传递价值。共同努力，互相学习。发展学生的心智，提高学生的技能，为游戏行业输送有价值的人才和研究成果。

7. 为未来教育指明方向

斯泰福厦大学的游戏设计学高级讲师Nia Wearn观察到当今游戏行业的很多工作——特别是VR、电竞等新兴领域的工作——在5年、10年前是不存在的。游戏行业变化万千，她说，这为学生培养工作带来了挑战。这也是为什么加强与行业的合作是如此关键。

8. 尽早挖掘和培养人才

教授Peter Howell注意到，比起别的行业，游戏行业在争夺和培养高校人才方面积极性不足。确实，小组内很多教育者都发现——从金融到国防——这些行业总是尽早挖掘有潜力的学生，并提供奖学金或助学金培养他们。

“游戏行业完全可以采取同样的做法，”Howell教授说。“费用可能有些高，但最终培养出高质量毕业生将抵消你的成本。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The UK games industry’s relationship with higher education isn’t always rosy. In fact, at times, it can be adversarial.

Yet with increasing challenges around the talent pipeline, the need to improve diversity and the threat of Brexit looming, the importance of these two sides uniting has never been more apparent.

Earlier this week, the British Games Institute held a conference designed to do just that — bring the two worlds together, develop best practices to improve the quality of students coming through the system, and to manage the transition from education into full-time employment.

Here are eight suggestions, made during the Education Summit, on how UK games studios can work better with educators.

1. Open up more work placements

The overwhelming response from all educators in the room was that the games industry needs to open up more placement opportunities for undergraduates between the second and third years of their courses.

Dr Peter Howell of Portsmouth University told attendees that students who go on placements, “tend to achieve a higher grade than what they were working up to until that point.” He also observed that students that spent a year in the industry improved their soft skills and general awareness of how the world works. It was a view immediately shared by Federico Fasce of Goldsmiths.

Dr Carlo Harvey, from Birmingham City University, added: “Games, which have overtaken music and film combined, have an ethical responsibility to start training [students] in-house. It’s hard to do because of return-on-investment and investor pressure, because you want people that can hit the ground running.”

This does speak to the problem — at least in part. Studios don’t necessarily have the capacity to take on that many placements, but educators had a few possible solutions.

“We have a lot of underused resource,” Harvey said. “We have summer windows with game labs that can be available to use, so maybe developers could send a few people to run a micro-studio out of our game labs.”

Howell added: “Maybe broadening the range of internships available. Because it’s a placement year, you need to take a student on from September to June/July. But we have a number of students who can have shorter internships: a three month internship, a one month, even a couple of weeks shadowing… It all helps the students understand how things work in reality.”

2. Support more game jams and career fairs

Goldsmiths’ Federico Fasce praised Media Molecule for its support of game jams. He said it builds community and encouraged students to work as a team. Educators also called for developers to have a presence at career fairs; to give talks and doing one-to-one discussions.

From the industry side, participation in game jams is something recruiters like to see on CVs when hiring new graduates.

3. Speak at universities and colleges — and maybe even join them

Speaking at universities is something a lot of industry employees do already. Educators told the summit that people at all levels are welcome to visit, from studio heads down to graduates who have only been doing the job for six months. All of it is useful for differing reasons.

Ant Cain, a lecturer in game development at Sunderland College, asked the audience not to forget colleges and further education institutes when it comes to educational talks: “If you could give 15, 20 minutes of your time a year to a local college, it will make a difference. Give people some guidance. Even the top 10% need some directing.”

Professor Ruth Falconer from Abertay University went a bit further, and said the best way to build a relationship between academia and the games industry is to employ industry professionals in certain educational roles and capacities.

4. Find ways to be more accessible

An issue that was identified throughout the Summit was the accessibility of the games industry.

Recruiters repeated the importance of building and creating a strong portfolio, even more so than obtaining good grades. However, universities responded that although this is fine for the graduates who can rely on the “bank of mum and dad,” it is a huge demand for students who need to juggle family and work on top of their studies.

There was a direct call from universities for recruiters to be more considerate of these challenges. Recruiters responded by suggesting that if students need to choose between working hard to achieve a higher grade or pulling together a strong portfolio, the latter was preferable.

5. Consider apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are relatively new to the industry, but they offer so much potential, Marcia Deakin of the NextGen Skills Academy argued. She added that the process of putting together apprenticeships is faster, and can be done in as little as 18 months.

Framestore’s Amy Smith says that apprenticeships are not really a competitor to degrees, but offer a viable alternative to work alongside them as part of the recruitment process. She said that although there is some housekeeping work that might put studios off, ultimately — with a good mentor — apprentices can simply get on with the job at hand.

6. Get involved with academic research

Dr Charlie Hargood of Bournemouth University made a strong call for the games industry to be more involved in academic research that goes on at universities.

“That is part of the education process as well,” he said. “Those post-doctoral students are the specialists of the games industry of the future.”

He called on industry professionals to help steer research to discuss the general problems that the industry faces, so that the research goes beyond, “the ivory tower and into the industry.”

This continued into the conversation around diversity, too, with speakers on the diversity panel explaining how university research can help them work through the challenges around hiring in games studios.

Finally, Dr Chris Lowthorpe from the London College of Communication said: “We must aspire to build meaningful collaborations to ensure the future success of the UK games sector. We need an education chain that delivers value to everyone. We must work together and learn from each other. Working together not only exposes mental models, industry practices to students, it also exposes research and talent to industry.”

7. Help educators prepare for future jobs

Nia Wearn, senior games design lecturer at Staffordshire University, observed that some of the jobs that exist in games today — especially around emerging trends like VR and esports — didn’t exist five or ten years ago. The industry is increasingly varied and always changing, she said, admitting that there’s a real challenge in preparing students for jobs that simply might not exist yet. This is why collaboration with the industry is going to be crucial.

8. Speak to graduates early, because your competitors are

Dr Peter Howell noted that other sectors are far more proactive than the games industry in trying to reach his students. Indeed, several of the panellists noted that companies — from finance to defence — identify promising students early on, and then nurture them through sponsorships and bursaries.

“There’s no reason the games industry can’t do the same thing,” Howell said. ” The high costs might be off-putting, but that is countered by the high quality of graduate you get out the other end.”（source：Gamesindustry.com）