The video game sector has experienced significant growth in recent years. last years. We take stock of a few fundamental subjects. Last case: employment challenges.
The labor shortage is also hitting the video game industry in Quebec, but in a very particular way: in this sector, it is the lack of seniors that is causing concern at the moment. In addition, the new national French requirements for immigrant workers do not make the task of Quebec recruiters easier in this globalized sector, whose market is estimated at $250 billion.
“Several studios are lacking experienced employees,” explains Duty Jean-Jacques Hermans, general director of the Quebec Video Game Guild for almost two years. The non-profit organization brings together the driving forces of the sector, independent and international developers, creators and educational establishments, with more than 300 members, making it the largest grouping of its kind in the world.
A senior generally manages a team of around ten people. The fundamental transformations of the video game industrial cluster in recent years have accentuated the shortage of officers compared to ordinary soldiers. The pandemic has spawned a new wave of independent studio creations, some by young industry graduates and others by seasoned employees, who have deserted large, established studios to go into business themselves.
The Guild is putting pressure on Quebec to facilitate the recruitment of replacement seniors abroad. Two elements stand in the way: the slow processing of immigration files and the Frenchization of immigrant workers.
“We are having discussions with the government because the new immigration rules will affect us,” says Jean-Jacques Hermans. We are in competition with Ontario, Great Britain, the United States, and it is easier for an experienced English-speaking worker to go there than to come here with the obligation to master French in six months. Despite all our francization efforts, and there are a lot of them, this element still remains a barrier, especially for seniors. We still hope that the discussions will progress and that the problems will diminish. »
And the young people?
Training juniors poses other particular challenges. The organization Synthesis – Pôle Image Québec was created five years ago precisely to meet specific educational needs in industries linked to video games, animation or immersive projections.
“Companies have turned to the Ministry of Higher Education to inform them of their quantitative and qualitative labor problems,” explains Brigitte Monneau, general director of Synthesis. Graduates were not always ready to enter the job market. »
She gives the concrete example of soft skills, transversal skills. Some companies deplore the fact that the graduates hired are not used to working in a team or calmly receiving certain comments on the quality of their work.
The ministry has heard the recommendation to promote ad hoc learning with internships and mentoring, but also continuing training since this highly technological sector is constantly evolving. “One of our areas of intervention, much more transversal, requires us to monitor what is changing in order to then adapt teaching,” adds Director Monneau. In a report released two years ago, Synthesis already spoke of the future impact of artificial intelligence on jobs in the sector.
Mr. Hermans says that, year in and year out, specialized post-secondary schools provide approximately 900 graduates from their various programs. The pandemic and its confinements favoring indoor entertainment stimulated their hiring and raids in 2021 and 2022. This market then experienced a tightening with around 6,500 positions eliminated in the United States at the beginning of last year then a new recovery in recent years. month.
Training entrepreneurs in the sector also poses challenges. Independent studios are proliferating, and the sector finds itself in a pressing need to help market productions while protecting the most promising shoots from foreign takeover.