Programming skillz and games degrees

Bob found a really interesting article on What Game Companies Want From Graduates. Interesting, for a number of reasons, but the one sentence that stands out for anyone teaching programming is this:

Currently for EA, the majority of "open positions for new graduates are software engineering and technical artist roles," though "both require substantial programming abilities."


Programming is, EA say, important both for programmers and non-programmers alike, no doubt for a bunch of reasons ranging from needing to communicate effectively with the whole team to needing to script and extend modelling and animation tools.

It's an important point because applications to core CS and Soft Eng degrees are falling world-wide, with interest in degrees such as Creative Computing and Games Technology rising. With fewer students opting to take A Levels in Maths and the physical sciences the need to develop core technical skills needs to be clearly seen as fun, important and leading to jobs in a way that was never needed by those of us who grew up hacking the Amstrad6128.