As the Caribbean continues on its quest to develop further competitiveness on the international stage, it remains imperative that consideration be given to the role of ‘new generation’ content areas such as Animation and Game Design. Globally, as a result of educational and technological advancements, a shift from traditional subjects including Law and Medicine to ‘new generation’ subjects has occurred. This has left the Caribbean education system with a void and thus no other choice than to take advantage of the newly created opportunities through diversification of its subject offerings and strategically preparing its human resources.
“Recent research, based on an evolutionary economics approach, viewed the creative industries as an important source of growth and innovation in the economy.” Creative industries are an emerging important source of income in the Caribbean, allowing for the skills of the Caribbean people to develop products and services that can compete on the global market. The copyright sector of the creative economy contributed a sizeable 4.8% to Jamaica’s GDP and 3% to employment. The Barbados Government has recently created a Ministry of Creative Economy.
Animation has been identified as one of the means of generating income within the context of the Caribbean’s creative economy. Additionally, the gaming sector, a multi-billion dollar sector, continues to expand worldwide. As the region pursues new activities and opportunities for growth and development of their people and economy, we look to our governments to provide the platforms which will empower our human resources to compete in global markets.
This enhancement of skills will also create opportunities within the Caribbean for the development of our own products and services. Consider, for example, the development of games that are culturally relevant, animations that assist the Tourism product and are used to advertise our shores; these can only be a reality if the opportunity exists to develop and hone these skills appropriately. Additionally, consider the movement of individuals from the Caribbean to take advantage of opportunities on a global market where countries such as the United Kingdom are on a thrust to expand opportunities in the creative sector by the millions. This has significant benefits to the region through remittances and reduction in unemployment rates.
The time has come for countries of the region to embrace the creative sector from a policy perspective and have subjects within the education system, including the development of syllabuses such as Animation and Game Design to support this thrust. It is the expectation that subscription to this subject offering will “help to increase the cadre of culturally-aware practitioners such as content creators, animators, graphic artists, sound engineers/technicians and actors trained in the use of industry-specific skills to solve design and communication problems.
The teaching of Animation and Game Design should therefore become an integral part of the education system and persons who are no longer ‘in school’ but are looking for possible careers, should be encouraged to consider this offering. The possibilities are numerous and we, as a region, are poised to seize opportunities that exist and create new ones through animation and gaming.
Reprinted from the Caribbean Examiner
REFERENCES
Caribbean Examinations Council. (2016). Animation and Game Design Syllabus.
Hendrickson, M., Lugay, B.,
Perez Caldentey, E., Mulder, N & Alvarez, M. (2012). Creative industries in the Caribbean: a new road for diversification and export growth. Studies and Perspectives Series (The Caribbean),
