Esports and gaming skills give students new tools – and perspectives
If you tell most parents that their children are going to play video games at school, their reactions will be mixed, to say the least: video games do not match the traditional idea of education.
But there is at least one person who sees the implementation of Esports as an opportunity: Mark Martin, Computer Science Lead at South Bank Engineering University Technical College, London.
Acer has embarked on a joint project with South Bank UTC to provide the institution with gaming hardware and thus introduce the students to Esports as a potential career, and most of all, as a way to develop highly marketable soft skills.
The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive: Martin has noticed a marked improvement in the life and work skills they will need to succeed in the engineering and health fields on which South Bank UTC prides itself—creativity, teamwork and communication, not to mention a healthy dose of perseverance and ambition.
If they are shown how to apply the abilities acquired in gaming to the real world, better gamers can make better employees—all it takes is the patience to start from level one and take their education all the way to the final stage.