Cardiff and Vale College recently welcomed a group of Year 9 pupils from Mary Immaculate High School to its City Centre Campus Makerspace for an Esports masterclass and taster day.
Hosted by the College’s Esports team and coach Jacob Williams, the pupils enjoyed a masterclass in team building, Makerspace activities, experienced Virtual Reality headsets, took part in an F1 time trials competition, Minecraft building, Lego Mindstorm, used tablets for a creative experience and programmed robots. They also tried their hands at podcasting and using greenscreen technology and saw a demonstration of 3D printing and were shown how it works.
The UK Esports sector is an area of considerable growth, with online gamers predicted to reach 11.56m by 2027, an increase of 6.64% on the figure for 2023. CAVC’s Esports courses provide specialist qualifications, endorsed by the British Esports Association, can open doors to a range of progression options from Esports through to Event Management and Sports Journalism.
Mary Immaculate High School Teacher of Maths, Retail, Business, Esports and Head of Year 8 Mr Butcher said: “The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their Esports experience at CAVC. They loved the practical element of the Mindstorm and experiencing the greenscreen and content creation.
“They also loved seeing a different side to Esports and the actual lesson delivered was highly engaging and well thought out. The College staff were friendly and welcoming, and the pupils were impressed with the facilities. They found it interesting to know about the different career paths open to them and it’s definitely something we’d like to do again next year.”
Cardiff and Vale College Principal Sharon James-Evans said: “We were delighted to be able to invite the pupils from Mary Immaculate High School to CAVC to experience and give them a taste of our Esports offer and facilities. Esports is such a growing industry and to be able to inspire the next generation and show them the options open to them is always a pleasure.”