Esports: Engaging Education

Esports is a fast growing and evolving industry, engaging millions of children across the globe both in competitive play and as a new form of entertainment. It is an amazingly inclusive form of entertainment, presenting opportunities for all regardless of age, physical abilities or gender. It is a very creative yet technical industry adopting existing skill sets across the video games, broadcast, media and sport industries all the while creating many new highly skilled roles. The danger of the digital skills gap is very clear, hindering both the growth of esports in the UK and many other industries too. We urgently need more children to be inspired by technology and digital creativity and discover exciting and successful career prospects in a rapidly changing world.

Digital Schoolhouse first pioneered esports in schools within the UK back in 2016. Since then our work in this area grows from strength to strength. This research was published in 2018 and carried out in partnership with Dr Bobbie Fletcher at Staffordshire University. The research demonstrated strong and clear impact on students soft skills, improving friendship bonds, increased self confidence and interest in computing and technology and careers within the video games industry.