UKIE announces sponsorship of Games Britannia Festival

Ukie is pleased to sponsor the UK’s first ever schools Festival of video games. Over 1000 children, aged between 5 and 18, from across the UK have already signed up to attend Games Britannia.
 
Games Britannia is the first ever week-long festival of its kind, bringing a fantastic collaboration of British video game talent into the classroom, giving students a unique insight into the skills, techniques and qualifications required for a successful career in the gaming industry.
 
Ukie, through its Next Gen Skills Campaign, is leading on the delivery of recommendations from the Livingstone Hope Skills report. The report, also known as Next Gen, found that not only were children not aware that there is a video games industry in the UK but that they were also unaware of the skills needed to work in this industry. Ukie established the Next Gen Skills Campaign to change this and to ensure a flow of talent into the UK games industry. This includes working with children, teachers and parents to demonstrate the importance of learning maths, physics, art and computer science – a goal very much shared by Games Britannia.
 
Ukie CEO Jo Twist said: ‘We are delighted to be supporting Games Britannia. It’s going to be a fantastic festival and an important one in driving forward our shared goal of using something everybody loves, games, to get them interested in studying maths, physics, art and computer science. Having over 1000 children signed up already shows the appetite there is to understand more about how to make games, how the games industry works and gives us a wonderful opportunity to get children to have fun while they understand a bit more about the skills needed to create the next generation of video games.”
 
Games Britannia Director, of Brinsworth Academy Mark Hardisty said: “Having the UK games industry support us through Ukie is vital for Games Britannia, and will provide inspiration and aspiration for the many children that will take part. Their work in helping get computer science onto the national curriculum has opened the door for thousands of children to learn how to code. Games Britannia is all about making sure that children know more about the skills required to make a video game and take advantage of the opportunities that are there.”
 
Games Britannia is a grass-roots initiative conceived at Brinsworth Academy and supported by staff at Sheffield Hallam University. Senior Lecturer in Game Development at Sheffield Hallam, Dr. Jacob Habgood said: “The motivation and commitment shown by Brinsworth’s staff has been humbling and it’s been fantastic to support them in such a forward-looking educational initiative.”