/Skills Bootcamp in Games Technology (Closed)
Provided by: UWE
Course Area: South West
Course Type: Short Course
Start date: 08/11/2021
End date: 17/03/2022
Subjects: Games technology, Software development, Software Engineering, User interface design, Visualisation
Price: Free
Delivery Method: Blended
Skills Bootcamp overview
Whilst games are typically seen as a form of entertainment, the application of games technology reaches far beyond this realm as the ability to develop rich interactive experiences, visualisations and simulations becomes increasingly valuable to all industries, be it aerospace, architecture and automotive, or manufacturing, marine or medicine.
This 16-week programme will provide you with an overview of how games are developed, and game technologies are applied outside of being solely entertainment products. Central to your experience will be training in Unity; a game engine and real-time development platform with many applications both inside and outside the entertainment industry.
An important element of the bootcamp will be practice-based learning. We will embed personal and professional learning and development into our core delivery to ensure that you develop the personal and interpersonal skills required to operate successfully as a professional within your chosen industry.
Who is this course for
The Skills Bootcamps are open to all applicants provided they are aged 19 or over, are recently unemployed, self-employed, looking to move into a new job role, or coming out of furlough and seeking a pathway to a digital career.
Learners will engage with 16 weeks of flexible delivery, blending real-time interaction (in person and/or face-to-face via online technology) with interactive online resources. Some real-time content delivery will be recorded and made available for later review and flexible support will be available outside of formally timetabled sessions.
Eligibility
Learners must:
- Be aged 19+
- Have the right to live and work in the UK
- Agree to provide mandatory personal data and supplementary information on their employment outcomes for up to 8 months following completion of the Skills Bootcamp
- Be looking for a new role, new opportunities or increased responsibility/promotion to a different role which utilises the skills acquired through their Skills Bootcamp
Be either
- employed/self-employed, or
- career changers/returners/redeployed, or
- unemployed within the last 12 months
Employers will be able to send existing employees who meet the Skills Bootcamp eligibility requirements on this training at an impressive 70% discount. Interested employers should contact the individual Skills Bootcamp provider.
What will I learn
The bootcamp is structured as follows:
Weeks 1-2: Induction / Basic Tools and Prof Skills
- Introduction to information systems and digital technology, key technologies for on-line learning, communicating, collaborating and presenting.
- Understanding requirements, setting objectives, planning and time-management, professional behaviour and professional ethics.
- Working with others, team dynamics, roles, behaviours and personalities .
Weeks 3-6: Computational Thinking & Practice
- Abstract and algorithmic thinking, formulating problems, organizing and analysing data, models and simulations, generalizing problems and finding efficient and effective solutions
- Designing and implementing software: requirements elicitation, design techniques, programming language constructs and data types, testing.
Over the course of the first six weeks, a series of game development support events such as meet-ups, socials, tech talks, game jams and even field trips will be made available (where possible). These events are intended to provide a safe space to learn more about game development, to ask questions and get to know the local game development community before the dedicated phase of game development that follows.
Weeks 7-12: Beyond Entertainment – Games Technology for Industrial Applications
- Unity basics: Creating projects, importing assets, creating 3D immersive environments, prefabs, templates.
- Learning the language of Unity (scripts, interactive content, collisions, scenes, animation)
- Production in Unity.
- Weeks 11 – 12 will see you complete your own mini-project using skills developed in the Unity bootcamp.
Weeks 13-16: Preparation for Employment
- Practical career advice, psychometric and personality tests, choosing the right role/career pathway, CV and portfolio development, cover letter writing, pitching, networking, job hunting, attending interviews and interview skills.
On completing the bootcamp, you will have acquired new digital and technical skills relevant to your chosen sector. Alongside these useful skills, the bootcamp offers you an opportunity to develop the key entrepreneurial, practical and interpersonal skills required to succeed in self-employment. While your personal and interpersonal skills will assist you to quickly establish yourself as a valuable, work-ready talent with employers.
Visit this courseCreating pathways to employment
How has the Skills Bootcamp been designed/created with employer input?
The industrial application of games technology bootcamp has been developed through collaboration between senior academics with professional games industry experience and a rich array of serious games, immersive learning and visualisation/simulation projects behind them, in conjunction with small and medium Bristol-based game companies and start-ups and the Foundry Technology Affinity Space at UWE.
How are employers involved in the delivery of this Skills Bootcamp?
UWE Bristol is an award winning, TIGA (Trade industry for Games Association) accredited provider of undergraduate and postgraduate Games Technology education. Through UWE’s internal PlayWest serious-games studio who has an extensive list of former clients and its own spin-out companies, industry professionals will be recruited and subsequently co-leading bootcamp sessions alongside academic staff.
Beyond games, a relationship with the Foundry at UWE Bristol also offers the prospect of stakeholder engagement in the bootcamp from broader fields of aerospace, engineering, creative technologies, software engineering, data science and digital media.
Employers will be involved throughout the process, reviewing and confirming the content, providing industry insights, advice on professionalism and employability and preparation for interviews during the final four-week block.
What are the routes to employment following successful completion?
The UK has the largest video games industry in Europe, and is important both economically and culturally; contributing over £1.8 billion towards GDP in the year to November 2018. But games technologies have crossover with an growing number of associated industries and formerly unrelated sectors as the world “pivots to digital”. There is increasing relevance for game development experience in other STEAM destinations (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).
UWE aims to place learners, through existing partnerships with games and creative technology, but also through its wider network of incubators, living labs and enterprise spaces such as its Foundry, Launch Space and Future Space settings, which link industry projects, technology start-ups and SME’s across the West of England.
UWE is also home of the skills development arm of the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) programme, based out of the new school of engineering at Frenchay, and brings partners such as Airbus, GKN Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, and CFMS to campus.
Participants will also be supported to attend interviews and provided with follow up signposting to further training and employment opportunities through local UWE and IoC national resources.