I think games development should be promoted to KIDS at school. Male or female, doesn't matter.

And:

"They may not know that it is a viable career, something where you can get a steady pay cheque, where you can get promoted and become really successful and make a lot of money."

Or where you can work overtime without pay, get laid off and have to fight for your last few pay packs, and see your job moved overseas, all while the industry bigwigs are alright, Jack. Make a lot of money? Unless you open your own studio, no.

Yeah, I'll go with the latter as being more accurate.

The industry really needs to mature into a proper career choice first, with hard work and skills allowed to flourish and be promoted rather than have some 'nu labour' inspired positive discrimination idealogy allowed to happen. I have seen this happen in previous studios and quite frankly you just end up with the wrong people in the wrong roles and better staff become bitter, annoyed and leave. When I interview for a position, I want the best person for the job, I don't care who or what they look like, come from, or if they are male or female. I find it absurd that we choose to ignore the natural process, be politically correct and see that some roles in society are of more interest to one gender over another. Thats not to say I haven't worked with very good, talented ladies, I have. BUT it's skills, knowledge and attitude first please, not ticking the correct boxes.
As for lots of money, steady pay? Is that why the author choose to leave the white heat of the studio sector and move into career lecturing?

I had no idea there were such things as computer games degrees when I initially chose my A-Levels. I don't like to dwell on what would have happened if I had picked different A-Level subjects.

I think the problem is partly that students tend to start looking into degree courses half way through their A-levels/Highers which is the usual time they apply, and so by the time many find out that games degrees are possible, their subject choices are set in stone.

Without good CLEAR information on what is available, many students might not know about games courses in time to pick the right A-Level/Higher subjects.

How many potential games students pick the wrong subjects at A-Level/Advanced Higher?

How many students who pick the right subjects don't know that games degrees exist?

I think there should be more info on games degrees - before GCSE and before A-Level/Higher. Full-on hard-sell marketing isn't necessary, and silly/random eye-candy might put off the serious maths/physics students - initially, just the knowledge that serious games degrees are available would be enough.

Many teachers/perents might not mention games courses to their kids - so who will?

I would say to Universities - don't wait until a student with the right A-Levels/Highers comes along to YOU - get information out there to give potential games students (and parents) a 'heads up' and help make sure that they get the chance to pick the right subjects at AS/higher - in full knowledge of the range of games-related subjects and expected grades you require. That should save a lot of wasted time and disappointment, and give the most talented students the best chance of getting into games.

go into your local school and offer to give a careers talk.. like i've just done..

if more people in the industry volunteered to get off their butts and help rather than moan about it then maybe we'd get somewhere!

That only 4% of employees in games are female is shocking. I'm in an industry (economics) that is roughly 25% female and that is consider a problem. Elling is right in calling it a problem.

The games industry is hardly a welcoming environment to women. I was at Eurogamer this weekend where women were in the minority and a good portion of the women representing the games companies were there in a tight-clothing-promotional roll. Hardly inspiring for young women considering games as a career.

In my Computer Games Applications Developement course at Abertay, there are no more than two girls. This is in a Centre of Excellence with world recognition.

In my short time in the course it's still rather clear that the types of people displaying interested in the course are still... how to put this... star struck by just playing games. THe gender imbalance is perhaps due to the attitudes towards the games sector in general. Though we know the industry is cut throat and serious, the media and secondary schools still pat it on the head like a "special" son of the older entertainment mediums.

It's strange. Art students must submit folios of quality work. Medical students must be enthusiastic and understanding of their course, as well as pass hurdle after hurdle of entry exams to get into their courses.

I chose my course over Avbertay's Games Technology course because I wanted to work with more on content creation and design side of Games development rather than the number crunching and heavy coding of the Games Tech. There is a stigma that Games Dev students aren't as bright as games Tech, as there is a lower requirement in mathematics.

Many people choose Games Dev as a fallback, or choose it though University clearing. Many of my fellow students are older than me because they've come from college rather than straight through secondary school.

Nothing against them, but there is a lack of focus in these students who have come from these methods of entry, and many actually struggle with the basics of University studying - one of my flatmates on the same course regularly needs reminding of deadlines, times and locations of classes. This is before we even get into the quality of work.

Abertay is a great place to learn Games Development. It's structure gives you a baseline of things to learn, but allows you to completely go beyond that, which I love. But I feel institutions need to take games development seriously right from the start. I would feel more comfortable if there were higher creative and communicative expectations.

My careers advisor in secondary school scoffed when I told her I wanted to create amazing videogames - games largely being seen as an almighty enemy of learning. I think also part of the problem is that still a lot staff in schools aren't Computer literate. I remember in my third year of secondary, quite vividly, teaching my own COmputing teacher how to insert clipart. That's just worrying. And it was like that, or worse, in the rest of the school.

Things are getting better though. In Scotland, the new curriculum for excellence is taking effect, and pupils actually make a video game in first year using scratch, and teachers themselves are becoming more computer literate as blackboards go out, and interactive whiteboards go in.

The Statistics come from Skillset's Women in the Creative Media Industries report which you can find on the Skillset website. Of all the sectors Games has the lowest representation. I have an article on the skillset blog (you'll find it) that tries to unpick why this is, especially with the rise of the Women Gamer in popular consciousness and the fact of mainstream ads featuring Wii playing families on sofas that are starting to replace the symbol of the hardcore male teenager. One would imagine this would encourage more women onto games courses, but this doesn't seem to be the case. In fact we're losing numbers. But then so are most media sectors. The problem is two-fold; not just women coming in, but also women staying. The first issue is a lot to do with School, but one would assume the second is to do with work culture. Neither are unique to Games, but they are many times more acute.

This is about depth of education and professionalism of the industry, point blank.

Like a few other posters have said, it has to do with not promoting the skills and thought processes early enough. This isn't just about games, or girls, or just a UK issue. Education on either side of the pond does not promote the maths and sciences well, does not seek to explain them as subjects or how they can relate to wide-ranging careers, and doesn't seek to relate them to creative thought. Games professionals, to be mature and able to grow on their own, need to be deeply interested in a wide amount of subjects from across the universal disciplines.

Children in general aren't prepared for choosing or succeeding in multifaceted careers. Some of them stumble into them because they're really good at one aspect and get lucky. In games, a large amount of developers aren't versed in advanced topics and the business doesn't encourage them to be. Maybe there aren't enough women in games because, just like men who have multiple talents and are able to get more mature, satisfying careers elsewhere, they have made a decision not to pursue the industry.

Playing a video game on your couch has very little to do with making games successfully, or researching what makes a good game and why. Until the industry stops promoting this idea, until developers themselves graduate from this impression, and until marketers and educators stop believing that selling a little girl your new title will somehow make them want to become engineers, cognitive scientists, media artists, and entrepreneurs, nothing will change.