Professional/Short Course Games Technology
Page last updated 12 October 2023
Introduction
Skills Bootcamps areflexible courses giving successful applicants the opportunity to build up tech skills and fast-track them to an interview with an employer. They are being developed by the Government as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, in partnership with employers, providers and local authorities, to help people develop the skills that are in demand in their local area and get a better job.
About this Skills Bootcamp
This Games Technology for Industry Skills Bootcamp introduces games development and how games technology powers engaging, immersive experiences in the games industry and beyond. It was developed in collaboration between senior, ex-games industry academics and the game studios and start-ups that have spun out of the Foundry at UWE Bristol.
This 16-week online programme will provide you with an overview of how games are developed, and how games technology underpins games, serious-games and non-game experiences. Central to your experience will be training in Unity 3D; a game engine and real-time development platform, that is used in 70% of today's games, which powers many applications beyond the entertainment industry. In addition to the online sessions, optional "booster" events will be hosted face-to-face on campus at the Foundry, but also streamed online as "blended" sessions for those engaging remotely.
An important element of the Skills Bootcamp is practice-based learning where, through several layers of support, you will develop the personal and professional skills to ensure you can operate as a professional within your chosen industry. Our Foundry interns will help develop your coding skills, industry tutors will lead your online sessions, while our industry mentors and academics will be on hand to help you build a recruitment portfolio, or advise you on business matters if you intend to start your own studio.
Games Technology now underpins interactive, immersive experiences in sectors as diverse as aerospace, architecture, automotive, manufacturing, marine or medical. So, whether you join seeking to develop games for the entertainment industry or to apply games technology to more serious applications such as simulation or visualisation, this bootcamp will increase your employability and help you achieve careers in games and or a wide range of other sectors.
Who is it 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 online interaction with interactive online resources. Real-time content delivery will typically be recorded and made available for later review and flexible support will be available outside of formally timetabled sessions. Optional "booster" events will be hosted on campus at the Foundry, but also streamed online for those engaging remotely.
Entry requirements
Learners must:
- Be aged over 19 years old
- Have the right to live and work in the UK (UK Citizen or valid visa, currently living 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
- recently unemployed, within the last 12 months
- self-employed, looking to develop their skills to increase their career potential
- employed, but looking to move into a new job role, or seeking a pathway to a new career
- employed, where you wish to gain increased responsibilities/new role within your current employment place or, your employer wishes you to develop your skills and is committed to paying 30% of the bootcamp costs*
*Employers will be able to send existing employees who meet the Skills Bootcamp eligibility requirements on this training at an impressive 70% discount of the standard fee. Interested employers should contact us directly via Enquire Now form below.
Structure
Content
This Skills Bootcamp is structured as follows:
Weeks 1-2: Induction / Basic Tools and Professional 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, organising and analysing data, models and simulations, generalising 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 Skills 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.
Features
Placements
Creating pathways to employment
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 Bristol 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 Bristol 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.
Study facilities
UWE Bristol has invested significantly in online resources to support your blended learning study. We use the 'Blackboard Collaborate' online platform to deliver an integrated learning experience to you and you also have access to a vast number of professional and academic journals and databases online through the UWE Bristol library.
Find out more about the facilities and resources UWE has to offer.
Prices and dates
Supplementary fee information
Course Dates
This Skills Bootcamp currently has no funded cohorts available, please complete our expression of interest form to be kept informed of future opportunities.
| Cohort | Start Date | Location |
Please note that you will be required to make a commitment to the following for the duration of 16 weeks: 12 hours per week of 'timetabled' activity 18 hours per week of supported activity 18 hours per week of self-study | TBC A full timetable will be issued prior to the start of the course. | Online |
Course fees
Places are fully funded by the Institute of Coding (I.o.C.) for applicants who meet the entry requirements.
How to apply
How to apply
In order to confirm that you meet the necessary requirements for a place on this course, please note that once your application has been approved you will be required to provide the following supporting information to formally accept you, as required by the university:
- A copy of photographic proof of ID (i.e. driver's licence/passport).
- For non-UK students, this must be a copy of your passport and proof of immigration status (i.e. visa)
- Agree to a formal Learner Agreement
Once accepted on the course, you will be registered as a UWE Bristol student and issued a UWE Bristol email and password, to enable access to the required online resources.
This Skills Bootcamp currently has no funded cohorts available, please complete our expression of interest form below to be kept informed of future opportunities.
| Cohort | |
| TBC | Expression of Interest |
We are collecting data on Skills Bootcamp applicants, candidates and participants to help the Department of Education (DfE) understand how well the courses are working and if they are achieving their outcomes. For further information about the Privacy Notice or queries about how DfE handles your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the Department for Education or write to: Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SWlP 3BT.
For further information
- Email: Please contact us using the expression of interest form link above.
- Telephone: +44 (0)117 32 81043 (option 1, then option 3)