In my day, apprenticeships were called Youth Training Schemes and mostly involved working in a garage or toiling away in some godforsaken meat processing factory. Not anymore. Last summer, NCsoft Europe (Guild Wars, Lineage) started an Apprenticeship in Quality Assurance and Games Production, working in conjunction with City College Brighton, PartnerTrans and Skillset, to offer placements for a group of industry newcomers. Now three of that in-take are most of the way through a year-long placement with the company and will earn a level 2 City and Guild qualification.
It's an interesting idea. Many videogame employees get their first break in QA departments, testing games and reporting bugs. The key difference here is that the apprentices apparently get a solid grounding in videogame theory alongside the practical element. Those looking to move up to design, programming or art will no doubt find this invaluable.
NCSoft's initiative is the first of its kind in the UK, but the company is not alone in courting young talent. Leamington-based developer Blitz runs annual open days for university students interested in a videogame career, while Free Radical Design took on a couple of interns after a game design competition at last year's Nottingham GameCity festival.
Several publishers also have more structured relationships with universities running dedicated videogame courses. Real Time Worlds, Electronic Arts, Sony Europe and Denki have all contributed toward the University of Abertay's BSc in Computer Games, for example. EA is a particular supporter of industry wannabes - over in the states it takes in interns from Georgia Tech, the University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon. I also like the set-up at Ubisoft Montreal's campus where the company bypasses universities altogether and takes a group of interested newcomers directly into its stylish offices to practise game development where it actually happens.
There remain question marks over the value of videogame training. Most developers I've ever spoken to would rather recruit graduates from maths or physics degrees than specialist computer game courses - their knowledge is vital in the development of physics-based 3D engines. Others think the industry should be bringing in talented people from completely different sectors, rather than training up inexperienced teens to think and work just like everyone else in the industry. Warwickshire developer FreeStyleGames, responsible for music action title B-Boy, has just announced the recruitment of a new project manager with a long background in theatre production.
Maybe that's the answer. Want a job in videogames? Forget apprenticeships, join a theatre group. As an ex-drama student I can vouch for that...
