The excitement is palpable as first-year level 3 esports students at NSCG’s Newcastle campus are told they’re about to spend today’s lesson playing their favourite shooter game, VALORANT.
The class of 16 and 17 year olds (three girls, 17 boys) are paired up and placed in deathmatch mode, with one student playing while the other stands behind them, counting up their hits, misses and headshots. They are surprised to see their lecturer, Connaire Delaney-Mcnulty, playing alongside them, but report a GG (esports slang for ‘good game’).
Some people are cynical about esports in further education. Are students just here to play video games? And is there really any prospect of a dream job at the end?
I want to find out if the doubters have grounds for concern.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, Delaney-Mcnulty says, game-playing is only permitted during about half a dozen of his esports sessions a year, with much of the course spent honing entrepreneurial, digital, marketing and video production skills.
His students’ cheers turn to groans as they now have to add their game data to Excel spreadsheets to calculate their kill-death ratios; demonstrating their maths and digital skills.
“We’ve taken an activity which they find fun and created meaningful analysis from it – the learning is then much more impactful,” says Delaney-Mcnulty.

Numbers soar
There are 114 FE colleges offering esports provision. Given esports has only been recognised as a qualification since 2020, its growth is monumental – by 2023 more than 10,000 young people had completed courses.
Courses range from an online esports BTEC intended to engage home-schooled youngsters, to Pearson’sselection of level 5 higher national diplomas.
At its launch last September, Freya Thomas Monk, Pearson’s managing director of vocational qualifications and training, said “many people don’t realise” there is “a wealth of career opportunities around the esports sector, which calls upon a whole range of supporting roles and services”.
But others disagree.
The UK esports industry was valued at around £111.5 million in 2020. It is projected to reach £202 million this year and grow by 5 per cent a year to 2029. Three-quarters of its market is esports betting.
However, since the pandemic ended, many esports companies have axed staff.
British esports firm Vexed Gaming, known for its Apex Legends, Counter-Strike and VALORANT rosters, collapsed last year, and another, Into the Breach, announced on Monday it was winding down operations. UK-based Guild Esports was bought last year by a US company after experiencing financial difficulties.

Internationally, the popular live streaming platform Twitch (owned by Amazon) axed more than 500 jobs last year. Epic Games (owner of Fortnite) shed 800 jobs in 2023 and communications service Discord axed 170 staff last year. There are many more examples.
Grant Rousseau, global director of esports and operations for Team Falcons and winner of the inaugural Esports World Cup, finds it “scary” that around 600 to 700 young people a year are completing esports courses, but there are (he estimates) fewer than 40 people in the UK working full time on a reasonable salary in the industry itself.
He points out that much of the global esports growth is being driven by a “huge explosion” in China, Korea, other European countries and the Middle East. The inaugural Olympic Esports Games takes place this year in Saudi Arabia.
“Realistically, the UK esports industry is extremely behind the rest of the world when it comes to job opportunities, legitimacy and growth of the industry,” he says. “Our jobs are extremely minimal.”
FE Week found 1,801 jobs advertised on the world’s biggest gaming and esports jobs platform, Hitmarker, of which 52 were UK-based (and not remote) and eight were entry-level (all as interns). Elsewhere online, the only UK vacancies we could find were for a partnerships director (for Fnatic), esports tutors and as a volunteer content writer for British Esports.
Rousseau believes some universities and colleges are using esports courses as a “get rich quick” scheme and attract students by highlighting the potential for UK jobs in esports which do not exist.
“It’s a horrible situation,” he says.

False marketing?
All the FE college websites offering esports that FE Week looked at highlighted the opportunity to work in the industry.
Burnley College’s website informed readers about the size of the growing global esports market, saying “you can be at the forefront of this exciting field with our comprehensive esports course”.
Loughborough College tells prospective students that “as esports has grown, so too have the career options available”.
Runshaw College says its esports courses “will give you a range of experience and skills to progress to university and gain employment in the rapidly growing esports industry”.
Rousseau says while the first few universities and colleges offering esports courses did so for “legitimate reasons” because “some jobs in the industry needed filling”, that is no longer the case with such an abundance of provision on offer.
None of England’s local skills improvement plans mention esports.
Many who study esports in FE progress to an esports degree. But Rousseau claims he would “never hire someone with an esports degree”, instead seeking someone with skills related to the job at hand – with a “marketing, graphic design or business degree”.
His advice to those seeking a career in esports is not to do an esports course, but to study something they are “good at and enjoy” instead, such as graphic design, marketing or sports psychology.

Jobs of the future
But Debra Gray, principal of Hull College, points out that careers in esports are often “location independent” and that although the UK industry is currently “embryonic”, “as it grows it will eclipse actual sport” in size, with streaming and content creation being “jobs of the future”.
“Fifty years ago, there were no social media marketers,” she says. “Now, you can’t recruit one for love nor money. You’ve got to be really switched onto those jobs of the future and start training for them early. And gaming is a multi-billion pound industry. We would be crackers not to help students find their place in it.”
Last year, Michael, 26, took out an advanced learner loan to enrol in Hull’s level three esports course, hoping to become a content creator.
He said he finds the course “engaging” and “business heavy”, as it is “very much about the industry of esports – coaching, entrepreneurship, making teams, how games work, strategies, and content creation. It’s a wild thing, all in one package”.
Michael knows it will take “a bit of luck” for him to achieve his dream, but adds: “I feel like with this course, I can build myself with those skill sets – and for other avenues in the esports industry.”

Engaging the disengaged
Rousseau often visits colleges and universities to help esports students find opportunities, and despite his concerns about esports as a full-time course, he acknowledges it “can absolutely be a tool to help keep students engaged with their work, to foster teamwork, discipline, nutrition and positive behaviour”.
Similarly, New Swindon College esports lecturer Chris Baxter says esports has “proven to be a powerful tool for engaging learners. By studying a subject they are passionate about, students feel motivated to attend college and succeed”.
Rob Forrester and Ben Lomas, co-programme leads for UAL level 3 Esports: Content Creation and Production course at Bournemouth & Poole College, admit they were “sceptical” when their college introduced esports provision in 2021. But they “quickly realised its potential as an educational platform”.
They add: “By connecting with students’ passion for gaming we’ve been able to teach them practical, transferable skills with impressive results.”
The programme’s “unique facilities” and the “engaging atmosphere” in esports classrooms generates “significant interest at open events”.
Delaney-Mcnulty acknowledges that jobs in the UK esports sector (which he previously worked in himself) “are not always long term”. But he sees esports courses as a “catalyst” to engage disengaged young people.
“Esports is their passion, and our role being the educators is making sure we’re turning that passion into something useful,” he says.
“It’s those who might not have engaged with a traditional school education who are excelling.”

Transferrable skills
Delaney-Mcnulty teaches a level 3 module on shout casting (commentating on games). Although jobs in shout casting are hard to come by, Delaney-Mcnulty sees it as “helping them in public speaking, pronunciation and expressing themselves, all skills that you need in all kinds of work situations”.
Meanwhile, Nathan Horton, an esports lecturer at Shipley College, believes though the number of UK jobs in esports is “not massive”, the BTEC he teaches gives students “broad skills” that “can lead into jobs within the [broader] digital industry”.

Esports culture
Like many colleges, New Swindon College has seen its esports course enrolments rise successively each year, prompting the launch of an HND course this September.
Baxter puts the courses’ popularity down to students’ desire to compete in the British Esports Student Champs (BESC), a PC-based video game competition between around 200 schools and colleges, involving 600 students.
Teams compete in leading esports titles, including Overwatch 2, VALORANT, Rocket League, League of Legends, Street Fighter 6 and Apex Legends, with over 250,000 viewers tuning in on Twitch.
Martin Birch-Foster, who teaches IT and esports at St Vincent College, believes the competitions are of particular benefit to the college’s SEND learners, who “didn’t always get the chance to compete in more traditional sports”.
SEND learners were better able to “regulate their emotions” when they lost a game than with traditional sports, he says.
“It’s a very inclusive environment. Anyone can play, it doesn’t matter your gender, ethnicity, or disabilities.”
Many of those who teach and support esports provision are passionate gamers themselves. They include Hull principal Gray, who sometimes has Twitch open on one of her screens to watch her esports students “play in real-time while I’m working”.
Horton was a professional FIFA esports player (ranked in the top 100 globally) before joining Shipley.He uses the stories from his gaming career to motivate his learners and tells me: “Students find that cool and it brings it to life a bit more.”

Hardware costs
While some colleges fork out up to £230,000 for esports gaming lounges, Delaney-Mcnulty says “fancy classrooms” are “good marketing tools” but are not really needed to teach the courses.
“For a very small centre, a few mid-level gaming PCs is all you really need. Once you’ve got those facilities in place, it can provide a safe environment for students who might not have been interested in a traditional course.”
Shipley College has the latest consoles, recently bought 15 to 20 new gaming PCs for around £2,000 each and is looking to buy an F1 gaming rig.
St Vincent College was initially gifted laptops with the hardware required to run games at high graphics settings which standard classroom computers lack, estimated to cost around £500 each.
But not everyone in education is a fan of esports classroom set-ups.
Scott Hayden, head of digital at learning at Basingstoke College of Technology (which has chosen not to offer esports), recalls being put off after observing an esports class where students in “leather-bound gaming chairs” were facing screens, rather than their teacher.
“Esports gave me the ick, but that’s my bias… I’m very open to being convinced, but it doesn’t feel like it’s there yet,” he adds.
Similarly, Harlow College principal Karen Spencer decided not to run the provision, after “quite a moral social discussion about it”.
She says: “It’s a bit like horse racing or motor racing. I’m not convinced by the careers in it. I think students are better doing games design, which we do offer, because then you get programming, coding and design skills.”

Advance of AI
Another challenge facing those teaching esports is keeping up with the pace of technological change. Delaney-Mcnulty says that “even without AI, the esports curriculum was out of date the moment it was written”.
Plus, some of the skills esports teaches can now be done by AI, such as video production.
Students value the exam-free, assignment-based structure of courses. But this makes it tempting for them to turn to AI tools. For that reason, Delaney-Mcnulty says he “strays away from purely written assessments… because they’re very easy to throw into an AI generator”.
Defying stereotypes
Lomas and Forrester’s students find the toughest part of the course is “breaking the stigma that esports is just playing games”.
One student, Kabe Brickhill, commented in a college YouTube video that “people think we’re just messing about in a classroom”.
In fact, lecturers say that esports courses involve significant amounts of work compared to other courses. Michael finds the workload “overwhelming” at times.

Baxter says students “find the workload challenging, particularly managing multiple assignments and meeting high standards which often involve extensive writing”.
However, “they value how the coursework connects to real-world applications, such as designing jerseys and hoodies”.
Delaney-Mcnulty believes esports learners are less prone to gaming addiction because they are taught the risks and how to control their screen time, though he has had to identify gamers who “shouldn’t be on the course”.
After students join he says they are “monitored” and “sometimes, tough conversations” are had.
Similarly, Birch-Foster says initially his college “struggled a little” with having young people taking the course “because they just wanted to play games”.
“Unfortunately, not everyone knew what esports was”, he explains. The following year, the college spent more time initially “talking with parents” about what the course entailed.
Michael admits that his screen time has to be “managed from time to time”.
“I’m trying to space it out so I’m not glued to the screen constantly, and I’m keeping aware of my wellbeing.”
Your thoughts