I mentioned two kinds of training. First, there is university education in the classic sense. These are mostly young students who want to learn a new occupation, and we should encourage that. Almost half the courses are taught by professors and the other half by instructors. At our school, we feel lucky that we have access to the pool of resources in Montreal, which is bursting at the seams with talent and with people who are ready to teach. Then there is the contribution from the industry. That is very important, because it rounds out the students’ education both in skills and knowledge, as well as in networking and contacts.
Companies have to be encouraged to lend out their human resources. I know that it may seem complicated to free up a top animator or game designer to go and teach one afternoon a week for 15 weeks. But, at the end of the day, the industry wins when our students are better trained. Experts from other countries have been brought in to teach our apprentices. We could ask local experts to come and teach them in the same way. That is the first aspect.
There is something else that needs to be done. A number of really good software engineers are working in different areas like aeronautics, aerospace and medicine. In some cases, employment is dropping and the resources remain local. However, the skills those engineers have are not quite the same as those needed in the video game industry. So we need to provide professional training in order to redirect their knowledge of the field, like transferring skills gained in aeronautics to video games, for example.