Gateshead College students are going digital

Jun 17 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

GATESHEAD College has launched an academy to encourage young people to take the leap into the region's respected digital sector.

The college’s Digital Academy will welcome its first batch of students in September, and will offer training to teenagers looking to break into the digital creative industries as well as top-up courses for adults aiming to broaden their range of skills.

It will be based at the college’s £39m Baltic campus and will boast state-of- the-art facilities to enable students to get to grips with tools needed for careers in games development, digital music technology, film and TV production and creative web design.

The North East is establishing a reputation as a hub for the games development industry, with nearly 10% of the industry’s UK jobs located in the region.

Gateshead College’s head of creative industries Tim Poolan says that the full-time courses are designed to open the eyes of teenagers to the possibilities of careers in the digital creative industries, and to give them a head start on contemporaries planning for jobs and university places.

He said: “It’s about bringing in people who have a natural interest in fields such as web design and games development, drawing them in and showing them that these areas are a viable career path.

“The content for the course is being devised in consultation with employers, and we’re using industry-standard equipment. Companies aren’t just looking for people who know how to use a piece of software. They also need to be industry savvy. The digital delivery of content is a huge growth area and if students learn about that it will make them more employable.”

The official launch today coincides with the ongoing Gateshead Digital Summer, which features talks and public events until July. Students from local schools were invited to take part in skills workshops yesterday.

The Digital Academy will offer 10-week courses aimed at adults which look at areas such as DJ skills, web design, 3D animation and digital photography. Full-time courses for students starting at age 16 are also on offer.

A one-year course will offer a Level Two BTEC, while a two-year Level Three course is available.

Equipment such as AfterEffects, Flash, Photoshop, Avid, Final Cut Pro, 3DS Max, Lightwave, Maya and Z Brush will be offered as part of the course. The college is also encouraging its other creative classes to learn skills at the academy, and is setting up a record label and a games developer in-house.

Mr Poolan said: “Students will be doing their own work and looking at how to market it and distribute it through digital delivery.

“It will have a commercial focus, and it will encourage them to think about enterprise.”