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this week launched a new initiative to get computers in schools and the government's response to the report of the next generation of Nesta. Is this a turning point for British industry game

Monday was a day of fairly mundane and cloudy for most of us, but could become a turning point for British industry of games. In the morning the body of Commerce announced UKIE Next Gen skills campaign, a major initiative called for fundamental changes to the system of secondary education, including the introduction of a computer course in the national program.

Later, by chance, the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport has published the Government's response to the next generation by Nesta report published in February.

Supervised by Ian Livingstone, life president of Square Enix, and Alex Hope, managing director of Double Negative, an in-depth study highlighted the strengths of the gaming industry and film in the effects Special United Kingdom, but called for better education of information technology to support future growth. In his very detailed document on Tuesday, the government admitted that at present ICT education in schools is "sufficiently severe and the need for reform."

In short, the games industry says British talent needs computer skills to children, remains a major player in the global marketplace - and we know that the government agrees. Currently, it seems that ICT courses in schools focus on creating Word and Excel documents, not the development of computer courses and creative programming skills required by the gaming industry -. And the digital economy

"ICT entered the national program in the 90's and was probably well-intentioned and very useful, then," says President UKIE Andy Payne. "But part of the research that NESTA report spoke to the school and shot the children simply were not interested was endless tutorials on how to send emails and create PowerPoint presentations -. Most of the children knew that anyway. "

Livingstone

as noted in the past, this is not a failure that affects "only" the future of interactive entertainment. All sectors of British industry - pharmaceuticals in aircraft construction - requires talented programmers, and Britain needs to produce more if it wants to compete economically

We have a swollen area of ??financial services that has absorbed many STEM graduates with more talent, but what real benefit? "All my friends entered Cambridge in finance and see the mess they made," Payne laughed. "If these skills are put to a creative and progressive, I would say that the UK would be a better, much better. "

So now the government understands the problem - the question is, what will happen next? Well, get a response from Westminster is a major achievement in itself. "We've been here before, especially with the Byron report," Payne said, referring to the 2008 study that examined the influence and culture of computer games and the Internet. "It was a fantastic piece of work by Dr Tanya Byron, with great input from industry, but it is just sitting on a shelf somewhere ..."

Livingstone hope was significantly greater impact report? The answer is that the players have made some very powerful friends. "In itself, the industry in the UK, the games will not be judged by Nissan and Toyota in terms of number of jobs that politicians have to offer," says Payne. "We are creating jobs with high value IP centric, but we never get to employ hundreds of thousands of people."

Thus the information campaign in schools need staff, and the report of Nesta, UKIE began to form a coalition of like-minded people, from independent game developers organization Tiga and agency expertise and e-skills level of skill.

After this came the support of the Guardian Media Group - which publishes guardian.co.uk, including blogs of games - the British Computer Society (which details the current situation of education and of information here) screen and the United Kingdom, among others. And the biggest - Google.

In August, the president of search engines, Eric Schmidt took the stage at the Edinburgh Television Festival and delivered a harsh critique of the British education system. After praising the country for its technological achievements, its role in the invention of photography and television, the nation accused of "throwing his team great field" by not teaching programming at school:

I was amazed to learn that today's computers are not even taught as standard in British schools. His program focuses on teaching the use of software, but gives an idea of ??how much.

Payne sees as a turning point for the problem. Suddenly, the Ministry of Education, the Department will be on board to produce significant changes in the education system was taking notes. Communication channels were opened and Ian Livingstone, have apparently found a line of special adviser to Michael Gove. "We believe that the door is open," says Payne, "Now, someone is standing there saying that come in. This was not the case until Eric impassioned speech."

Google has joined the Next Gen skills campaign and welcomed the announcement yesterday at his office in London. One of the largest technology companies in the world is on board, and the pressure on the video game industry. Facebook, it seems, is about to join as well.

Meanwhile, Schmidt's point of literacy programs is that Livingstone has been done in parliamentary sessions and conferences throughout the year. Learning computer skills without having to program, he says, is like learning to read without learning to write. In the case yesterday, put it brilliantly:

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