News

Basingstoke college to open the South’s First Esports Skills Facility

Tuesday December 15th, 2020

Basingstoke college to open the South’s First Esports Skills Facility

 

Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke, Hampshire has received investment to open the South’s first Esports (electronic sports) training facility.

 

Esports is one of the fastest growing entertainment and media sectors in the world. Events now attract more than 450 million unique viewers per year and revenues are already surpassing the $1Bn milestone.

This pioneering facility will provide up to 80 young people a year the opportunity to develop the specialised digital skills needed to ensure this hugely successful area of the digital games and entertainment industry continues to grow.

“We are delighted with the grant from EM3 Local Enterprise Partnership and hope this firmly puts us on the map for leading this contemporary, engaging and vital course for an ever-increasing, global industry. This building will have state-of-the-art teaching and gaming facilities thanks to our global partnership with HP, Belong Gaming Arenas and YoYoTech and allow us to be the leading esports provider for post-16 education in the south of England.

Leading is about going first and that’s what QMC are doing here with this course and the investment and partnership with EM3 allows us to get students ready for this brand new industry and put digital business skills at the heart of this project. We look forward to welcoming the new generation of students to QMC in September and watching this qualification flourish in this fantastic new space”.

James Fraser-Murison, Director of Learning at QMC and who helped write units for the first ever BTEC in esports.

Read the full article here.

 

 

Back to News