Memorandum submitted by Skillset
SKILLSET
1.1 Skillset, Sector Skills Council (SSC)
for the audio visual industries, covers television, film, radio,
interactive media, computer games, animation and photo imaging.
Skillset is a UK wide, industry-led orgainsation
licensed by Government to tackle the skills and productivity challenge
by sector.
1.2 Skillset was one of the first SSCs to
receive its license and, after the publication of the Governments
White Paper: 21st Century Skills, was selected as one of just
four Pathfinder SSC tasked with pioneering Sector Skills Agreements.
In May 2005 Skillset published three detailed
skills strategies for film, television and interactive media,
nine English regional skills strategies and separate and distinct
strategies for both Wales and Scotland. We are currently working
on developing a strategy in Northern Ireland.
After negotiations with our public agency partners
in England and the devolved administrations to achieve their support
and commitment, we now have three Sector Skills Agreements for
England, Scotland and Wales.
1.3 Our Interactive Media Skills Strategy
was developed in partnership with the Skillset Interactive Media
Forum, Chaired by Andrew Chitty, Managing Director, Illumina Digital,
and the Skillset Computer Games Skills Forum, Chaired by Ian Livingstone
OBE, Acquisitions Director of Eidos, both of which are made up
of leading industry representatives who guide and inform all of
Skillset's work in these sectors. (A full membership list of both
forums is attached appendix (not printed here). The forum and
development of the strategy is an achievement in itself as it
marks the first time this hugely diverse sector—which lacks
many common definitions—has come together and identified
the issues and agreed consensus on collaborative action.
The strategy has developed an action plan detailing
the industries skills needs and solutions—Creating the Future:
The UK Skills Action Plan. (Full copies are available on our website
www.skillset.org/interactive)
1.4 This submission has been prepared specifically
for consideration by the Committee but does quote sections from
the action plan, which are clearly highlighted.
RESEARCH: SIZE
AND SHAPE
OF THE
WORKFORCE
2.1 There are considerable difficulties
in scoping the sector, not only in terms of its vast and diverse
spread of activities but also because the sector is not currently
classified under SIC and SOC codes.
Skillset's research has produced conservative
figures on the size of the industry which should be viewed as
indicative only. We have identified that the sectors within interactive
media differ considerably in their geographical distribution throughout
the UK.
Specifically, web and internet employment is
much more London-centric. Three fifths of the workforce is employed
in London, one fifth in South East, and the remaining fifth is
distributed fairly evenly throughout the remainder of the UK.
Both computer games and offline multimedia have the South East
as their largest regional base, with over one third of each workforce
based there, with London in second place accounting for 16% of
employment in computer games, and 25% in offline multimedia. Other
significant bases for the computer games sector include the West
Midlands (12%), the North West (11%), and Yorkshire and Humberside
(10%). The next largest community of offline multimedia employment
is in Wales (13%).
Within the audio visual industry as a whole,
the proportion of the workforce qualified to graduate level is
exceptionally high, at 66%. However, all three interactive media
sectors greatly exceed even this level of graduate employment.
In total, 86% of those in web design and development are graduates,
69% of those in computer games, and 91% of those in CD Rom and
other multimedia.
THE IMPACT
UPON CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES OF
RECENT AND
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
IN DIGITAL
CONVERGENCE AND
MEDIA TECHNOLOGY
3.1 New technologies in the games industry
(in particular the cyclical nature of games consoles) has resulted
in significant issues for the skills needed by the games workforce.
Increasingly studios are taking on more staff for technical roles
in programming and art, and consequently more staff are needed
to manage the larger teams.
This has resulted in a shortage of talented
team leaders and project managers and games companies are seeing
increasing amounts of risk associated with this aspect of the
production cycle. In order to offset the huge amount of financial
significance of delivering assets late, or off model, companies
are relying heavily on project managers and producers. The industry
has realized that this is an area of skills development that needs
support if the industry is to make its next technological transition
successfully.
From the action plan: Project Management is
a significant gap and shortage for the industry as it requires
companies and individuals to plan and manage, uniquely combining
artistic, technical and production skills and team.
In both sectors convergence and technological
change also have an impact on the technical skills of the workforce—new
techniques are needed to deal with producing work for new platforms,
and increasingly, interactive media and games products are expected
to be delivered to function on a variety of devices.
This will impact especially on degree courses:
From the action plan:
It is recognised by industry that it takes time
to develop and validate undergraduate degree courses and that
the current formality and timescales of curriculum development
make it a challenging prospect to develop the courses fast enough
to respond to industry need, but it is felt that they tend not
to move quickly enough to keep pace with the industries' skills
requirements or to provide the student with the robust and wide
range of skills needed for the industry. Not only is there the
need to tailor interactive media related courses to industries'
needs but industries would like course content to be delivered
in a more flexible and modular way.
Degree level courses have an emphasis on enduring
skills and "learning how to learn", rather than on transient,
software or platform specific ones in isolation. Any teaching
of specific software packages must be in an applied context and
should be used as a means to an end (the learning of high-level
concepts, principles and techniques) rather than being the end
in itself.
3.2 As well as specialist and general skills,
practitioners working in Interactive Media need an all-round awareness
of the industry, its processes and business issues as a whole.
Successful practitioners need to be self-motivated and autonomous,
and have the right entrepreneurial attitude and a willingness
to continue learning and taking advantage of the opportunites
afforded by new technologies.
This need for companies and individuals to understand
new markets and new opportunities has been identified in Skillset's
research—possible solutions are in development by Skillset:
Industry Induction Programme and supporting
materials that will be available on-line and through events to
be used by employers, education providers, and festival organisers,
to ensure that all individuals hoping to work in the industry
understand the many sectors, types of companies, and variety of
job roles.
Business Development Schemes to provide contextualised
business support for those companies to remain in business, to
grow and, in particular, for interactive media and games companies,
to understand how to exploit new markets and platforms for their
products.
Accreditation programs for courses in animation
and computer games are being piloting by Skillset. The assessment
criteria for these schemes focus on relevant skills in the workplace
and recommend that students are made more fully aware of employment
rights and responsibilities with regards to possible career destinations.
This will improve prospective new entrants understanding of relevant
IP and copyright legislation and their appreciation of why it
is vital for businesses in this sector.
THE EFFECTS
UPON THE
VARIOUS CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES OF
UNAUTHORISED REPRODUCTION
AND DISSEMINATION
OF CREATIVE
CONTENT, PARTICULARLY
USING NEW
TECHNOLOGY; AND
WHAT STEPS
CAN OR
SHOULD BE
TAKEN—USING
NEW TECHNOLOGY,
STATUTORY PROTECTION
OR OTHER
MEANS—TO
PROTECT CREATORS
4.1 Steps that should be taken—from
Skillset's point of view—on the issue of the management
and exploitation of IP and IP rights involve educating interactive
media and games practitioners on the relevant issues—through
induction programs, CPD and business development. If further steps
are taken it will be important that practitioners are aware of
them and can utilize new initiatives to protect their IP.
The industry has identified a number of programmes
that would enhance understanding and Skillset is currently awaiting
confirmation of funding from DTI to develop and implement a suite
of CPD courses to support the industry in this area through training
including:
— Asset exploitation and management.
— Marketing and brand awareness.
— Outsourcing and Partnership Management.
— Mergers and acquisitions and legal
awareness.
— Technical expertise in digital security,
anti-piracy technologies and ability for companies to build systems
that seamlessly integrate these functions.
CONCLUSION
5.1 In addressing the issues surrounding
emerging and new technologies and the unique intellectual property
challenges they present it is vital that Government recognises
and prioritises the need for skills development amongst the workforce.
In addition to legislative protection, understanding and knowledge
across the sector must be kept up to date in order for that legislation
to be implemented and of practical use. The work of CREATE (the
Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property in particular)
as is the newly announced Creative Economy Programme and Skillset
will feed these issues into both those reviews. The training and
development of the workforce in this area is of paramount importance
if future IP and copyright legislation is to have any meaningful
and beneficial impact to the industry as a whole.
27 February 2006
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