BBC’s Bitesize School Tour will include esports rep to raise awareness about esports careers ‘beyond the obvious’

Representatives from the UK video game industry have signed up to support the BBC’s upcoming Bitesize Schools Tour “to encourage young people to explore careers in the creative industries”.

Manchester-based esports team Vexed Gaming – the only esports organisation involved in the tour – is one of the contributors that will raise awareness of careers “beyond the obvious”, such as event organisation, marketing, HR, business development, administration, and logistics.

Bitesize is the BBC’s study support service for students, covering a range of educational aids from Key Stage 1 all the way up to GCSEs, including the Scottish Highers. The tour hopes to be “an inspirational project” as it delivers a series of one-hour career sessions to secondary school children in the North from now until schools break for Christmas.

“The aim is to ensure school-aged pupils are aware of the different creative roles available to them, including marketing, media, press and advertising,” says a press release. “The spring Bitesize Schools Tour earlier this year was a huge success, with the autumn series bigger in both scope and scale, comprising Question Time-style panels featuring professionals from the worlds of TV, radio, journalism, games, PR, music and events.”

“It’s a huge honour to be asked to participate in this year’s BBC Bitesize Schools Tour,” said Mark Weller, chief gaming officer at Vexed Gaming who will be presenting on the tour. “It’s crucial for both the creative industries and esports that we educate children on the career paths available to them. Esports itself is an extremely inclusive community, with roles that extend beyond playing games and into event organisation, marketing, HR, business development, administration, logistics and more – it’s going to be a great series of events.”

Vexed Gaming was the first UK organisation to organise an all-female team and the first to open a dedicated training facility. It was also the first team in Europe to launch a Varsity programme in partnership with Manchester University.