TIGA: Industry Needs to “Recruit a More Diverse Workforce”

TIGA CEO Richard Wilson has said today that one of the obstacles facing the games industry, particularly in the UK, is that the workforce is not yet diverse enough.

Specifically, Dr Wilson notes that there is “an extraordinary gender imbalance” in the industry. “The 2010 TIGA-Hewitt Games Software Developers’ Salary Survey shows that just 6.6 per cent of the workforce is female,” he said.

“The videogames industry would like to recruit a more diverse workforce. If we are to recruit a more diverse workforce then we need to encourage more women to both study courses relevant to the games industry and to highlight the career opportunities that exist in the sector. TIGA produces a career guide for this purpose. We hope that the government will work with TIGA to champion the games industry as a potential career path.”

Around 10% of students studying games at University are female, and in 2006/7 on 17% of Computer Science graduates were women. “All games businesses must ensure that their selection and recruitment policies and practices promote equal opportunities and recruit on merit,” Richard Wilson said.

It’s surprising that the industry is so dominated by males, given that females actually play games as well. I think the fact that old values suggest men should be doing one subject and women another may have a role to play here, so perhaps when the old people die out we’ll see a surge of people choosing games subjects because our generation will allow them to. Of course, we won’t let them choose those virtual reality classes, because that’s not a real career path.