Category Students

Don’t you forget about me

dramandaford78 1 Comment

Hi

I felt it was time to remind everyone that there is education outside of universities and schools. Namely colleges yes, we are here, we exist and hey we even teach courses in games development.

OK I’m being a bit flippant there, but I want to remind everyone that there are other options when you leave school or are thinking of a career change.  I also want to shout out to industry that we exist, and we do produce graduates that overall do go on to university to continue and get their honours degree before entering the workforce.

Why am I even mentioning this? Well, it’s become clearer to me over the past couple of years being involved with Scottish Games Week and leading on the Education Symposium that I’ve heard a lot of talks from industry (and seen other events run) that people just point blank don’t mention college level education. As a college lecturer attending such talks its so disheartening to hear people who do give great talks but then talk about university students and that’s it.  I want people to recognise that colleges also play a part in the games industry, and we work hard to ensure the best for our students to enable them to head off to university for the last 2 years of their degree and gain employment.

For me this is why I set up Scottish Games Education Network to bring together those who teach games but also with the hope that along with Scottish Games Network there will be a better recognition of how the education landscape flows and it’s not just school then uni but can be school, college then uni or even school, life then college & uni.

My hope is that educators within both colleges and universities will get together and talk about courses and how we can ensure the best for our students while also having the opportunity to have interactions with industry which for the best part really has only been open to university. So far between the network and Scottish Games Week things are moving which is awesome and I want to continue with the momentum but also want everyone to realise we aka college lecturers are there teaching and doing our best to ensure a bright future for our students.

Extra fries? Naw exercise !

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Yeah I know cheesy title hmm chips and cheese lol. OK I know however want to discuss a wee change. Now I am an educator and want to ensure the best for my students for sure and when a call went out for students in one of our other courses who needed help well the clever one here decided ach why not. After all we were all students once right needing some help? I’ll also go back to what a friend and former colleague/mentor Julie said to me before giving my first lecture go do something that scares you and well I did by sending that email to say yeah I want to help the students out.

Whats so scary then you say? Well its not just any help I’m helping a HND Sports student with their personal training (for those that know me you know I am a shape but not in shape hehe). However I’ve blogged about mental health before and exercise is a real help to boost poor mental health. So I decided I have nothing to lose at all and go for it. 

Did the first week of getting the statistics and then this week was my first real workout. I was scared a bit I mean weights and all those machines that you don’t know what they do are a tad terrifying for the uninitiated. However I need not have worried for my awesome PT soon put my mind at ease. She’s a fab lady who honestly has such a great positive energy it made me feel supported and ready to take on anything she had planned. She really did take the mystical fear of weights even away from me (I’m talking dumbbells nothing bigger or the leg machine doo dah (I’ll learn). One key thing I’ll take is the communication its totally a two way thing and she’s been reminding me that I need to speak to her as well as to whats fine and whats not, mega important by the way if you are doing exercises. Since you are putting trust in someone but also you need to let them know your limits and what is comfortable or not no point in not pushing yourself or pushing too hard. Took me until now to get this down since well on Friday bits were sore haha (she warned me given its been a long time) however I am so looking forward to the next session as the positive boost when leaving on Thursday after that session its worth it and I get why it helps with your mental health. So if you see me on a Thursday after 12 and I’m cheery but knackered you’ll know why.

Finding out more about careers in games.

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On Friday 26th I organised a morning of talks for our games students (NC/HNC & HND Games)  from those who work in the industry. I think it’s important that students are aware of the many varied career paths within games possibly ones that they’d never even thought about and get an idea of what they should be doing to progress further in their chosen field.

To start us off James Hodgart from Axis Animation discussed his career and what he does as a 3D artist. James is also a former student/lecturer of West College Scotland as well so it was great to have him back to inspire our students. James talked about being a lead on projects which means he has to designate and find the best person for the job in hand. Some wise words as well about getting started with your 3D work start small and make the small things good before moving on to bigger projects keep practising.  After showing an amazing video of the things he has worked,  on he then went on to discuss the differing jobs available in Animation.

George Corner is an Events manager for QD events and he spoke to the students about his varied career before his current position. It was particularly interesting to hear from George as most of us have attended at one point or another a games event/expo which got students thinking a bit more that there are lots of paths career wise that they might not have even considered.

Next we had a couple of Skype calls once the technology worked! First up was Steven Sim a Lead Artist for TriCAT GmbH Steven is based in South Germany and spoke to the students about moving abroad for work and showing them how he started off his animation work with one of his projects to where he is now.

James Hodgart
George Corner
George Corner
Steven Sim
Thomas Welsh
Mazen Suker
Cat interrupting!

Mazen Suker a game designer for Bohemia Interactive was our second Skype call though was upstaged by his cats. Mazen discussed how he got to where he is today (based in Czech Republic) but has been well traveled for work. Key point from his talk was all about keeping your mental health well and finding your own style of working.

Our last speaker was Thomas Welsh a Narrative designer for Cloudpunk. Who spoke to the students about writing for games and getting started (just write !!) Lots of useful advice though from him on the subject and it was great to hear about his work.

Overall the morning went well and it was great to hear from the different speakers on their varied careers and I hope that its given our students a little more inspiration and determination to work to ensure they are successful in their chosen field.  Thank you to James, George, Steven, Mazen and Thomas for giving up their time to come and speak.

Also thanks to our HND Games student Scott Davidson for kindly taking photos on the morning.