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Thursday 6 October 2011

College Leads the Way with New Games Course

Forth Valley College have taken computer game development to a whole new level with a new National Certificate qualification.

The NC Games Development – the first of its kind in Scotland – was the brainchild of Fiona Jackson a Curriculum Quality Leader (CQL) and computing lecturer at the college. She spent the best part of a year writing the guidelines for the new course which has been given the blessing of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Now Fiona and her dedicated team of lecturers have just recently welcomed the first intake of eager young students who have signed up to begin their education in in designing computer games.

Fiona – who is currently recovering from a broken leg - said: “I was involved in writing units for another games development course at a higher level, when I realised there was no introductory course to help students progress on to HNC or HND Level. There was a gap in the market and I arranged a meeting with the SQA, did some market research and found there was a large demand for such a course.

“This is the missing link if you like and Forth Valley College are the first college to offer it!

“It has been a real team effort to get to this stage and my colleagues on the development team – which also included staff from Dundee, Motherwell, James Watt and Aberdeen Colleges - have been great in helping create the course. It has been hard work, but a very worthwhile experience and it has been a real voyage of discovery for all of us.

“Ironically I don’t really play games myself, but am fascinated about how they are created and put together from a programming point of view. Having two teenage sons who are gamers has helped keep me on message when it comes to what is happening in the gaming world.

“The first class who have enrolled seem to be very enthusiastic and that is half the battle – so it is so far so good. Let’s hope they all get a high score in their assessments!”

Tags: Business, Current students, Employers, Full-time, Stirling

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