When I was picking my GCSE's and A levels I had to pick between two routes, Maths or Art. This I believe, is still the case, but I'd like to ask why?!
Do Universities Need To Teach Basic Job Skills?
An announcement by Edge, the education charity, caught my eye this week. It said that universities should now be required to teach employment skills as part of degree courses. According to its latest study, employers now believe too many graduates are unfit for the workplace.
Have Some Fun With Squishy Circuits
How would you go about having fun making electronic circuits? How about by combining it with play dough?...
Back On The Road
The Escape University Tour starts up again this month after a short break for Easter. Last week, I was in Ipswich to speaking with students at the School of Arts and Humanities at University Campus Suffolk.
Looking for a Summer Internship?
Are you looking for something to do this summer? Ever heard of StudioAKA? They are a London based multi-BAFTA winning animation production company, known world-wide for their amazing innovative work. And they may want you for the Summer!
They are looking for a bright spark to work in the field of DB & pipeline development (within June to August).
Using 3D to Good Effects in Teaching
It’s not often that I see something that just makes me pause and wonder in amazement, but a few days ago, I came across a short video that did just that.
Rhythm & Hues: Effects Apprentice Program
Calling all escapee's and graduates... An opportunity to be part of this amazing apprentice program in California!
Half of English Universities Opt for Charging Top Fees
Another week, another headline about English universities charging students over the odds: “University fees: Half opting for top fees”.
Record Number of Overseas Students
Did any of you read the recent article published on the BBC called "Record numbers of international students"? This is definitely worth a read.
University Tour Update
The tour continued with a whirlwind week of talks. Firstly I met with a small group of the Games Development students at the University of Westminster. They have a number of interesting courses there as well as some interesting research projects - I hope we can build on this initial meeting and I'll be able to tell you more about what they are up to in the future!
Escape Studios Launches New Search Function in its eLearning Platform
Over the past couple of weeks we've been busy working on our online learning system. "Really? I haven't noticed any difference", I hear you say... Well, it is true that most of the work carried out has been "under the bonnet", so you might not have noticed anything. The reason for sharing this with you today though, is that this work is enabling us to bring to you a number of new features and enhancements.
Livingstone-Hope Report Launch
On Tuesday I attended the launch of the Livingtone-Hope report which was undertaken to address the skills issues facing the UK's games and visual effects. Escape Studios staff have taken part in a number of the surveys which went into building the data for this report as well as speaking directly to Hasan Bakhshi and Juan Mateos-Garcia from NESTA, who did a large amount of the work of pulling the data for the draft report together. In essence the report lays out 20 recommendations across the talent pipeline from schools through FE and HE to the industry. All these parties as well as the government and other skills and training bodies such as Skillset are called on to do their bit. All of this whilst being realistic about the funding and resources available, the recommendations had to be about the focus of existing funds not calls for large sums of new money.
Escape Studios on Tour!
Escape Studios is hitting the road this year undertaking a program of talks, presentations and master classes throughout the UK universities and colleges.
Good News: Graduates Vacancies are on the Increase
At last, we have good news for graduates in the UK. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) have just released figures indicating that the number of graduate vacancies is actually on the increase for the first time since the recession started.
Escapees make it to Autodesk's Education Showreel
We're never prouder than when our escapees get the recognition they deserve. This usually comes in the form of a first job with a top post house or commendation from the professional community for a perfectly executed shot, so when we found out that some of our escapees made it to the Autodesk 2010 Education showreel, we were beaming.
Online versus classroom
Framestore’s VFX Supervisor on HP7 Inspires our Students
Last Wednesday, Escape Studios had the honour of having Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor at Framestore come into our studios and talk to our students about life in the industry. Christian discussed the bits about the job that are great (Like getting to see your name up on the big screen after arduous months of working on a project) and the bits which aren’t quite so good (Like the long hours). It wasn’t just our students who enjoyed it, we loved it too. Christian’s thirteen year career has been an epic one and his latest contribution to the industry as VFX Supervisor on the latest HP7 is particularly impressive. We spoke to Christian about the highs and lows of his career so far, and what it feels like to have been part of one of the biggest films of our recent times.
Kettling, the new video game...
Sometime, I just come across stories that make me laugh out loud. This one is just one of them.
MediaCity UK - Salford Quays, Manchester
I was invited up to take a look around MediaCityUK UK last week. I didn't really know what to expect, I had heard quite a bit about the developments over the past few years but it had always been 'up North' and at the back of my mind.
To be academic or not, that is the question...
Here's a great piece of animation which illustrates something I care deeply about, the education system.
