We speak to the co-founders of the first Games Careers Week to discuss industry employment, the diversity profile of video games, and sector accessibility. This episode features Rick Gibson of The BGI, Declan Cassidy of Into Games, and Andy Driver of Grads in Games.
The games industry over the last few years has come on leaps and bounds, ensuring games careers are more accurately mapped out and demystified to those looking to join the sector, but what about the general public, especially those from more diverse backgrounds that the industry tends to struggle to recruit? With more and more outreach by charities, studios, not-for-profits, recruiters, and educational institutions happening every year, how can the industry as a whole ensure that more people from every background have the chance to start careers in games?
“We need to change the diversity profile of the games workforce,” says Rick Gibson, CEO of The BGI, a games education charity that was founded as a result of a long-running campaign from over 600 studios and universities to create a new agency for games culture and education. “When we first started talking about this initiative, one of the key realisations was that no one organisation, no matter their size, has a monopoly over the education to employment pathway. Instead, what we have is this patchwork quilt of amazing programs who each do their own thing well in their own specific area, but they’re usually disconnected.” Games Careers Week was created to address this problem.
