TASK 19: Education & Games...

The blog question this time round kinda confused me to begin with (like a lot of things) but, after reading over it MANY times, I think I finally understand.

Universities are expected to teach game art students how to use programs such as Max and also try to teach them how to draw. Yeah, yeah, we all know this bit. The part that's confusing me is; "Some [employers] claim they really prefer creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background."...well sure, creativity is most likely a must for a game artist, but shouldn't an artist be creative anyway?...Artists CREATE things and generally have to use their creativity to do so. As an added note, I've never tried teaching creativity but wouldn't it be a little difficult to do so?...Hmm?

Anyway, a university being able to teach the student creativity AND all the technical aspects of the programs he or she is expected to use would definitely fall under the subject of "challenging". Especially when some developers are searching for very specific things that may or may not be covered on a university course.
I was just looking through available jobs for artists at www.gamesindustry.biz and it seems as though jobs range from a general concept artist all the way to lighting artists and level designers. A range of programs that might of not been covered on a course might also be in use, AND (to be contradicting to the question at hand) It also seems as though most are looking for people with technical experience over a liberal artist's background...At least that I can see.

I can see the bonuses in having a good technical understanding of programs that need to be used as well as a good, liberal arts background, but it'd be arduous for lecturers to teach students (especially in classes the size of ours) all of the skills that each and every games company wants. I think the only way around this problem is to teach students a wide variety of skills that allow the student to be versatile enough to work in as many positions as possible. Surely the most fulfilling experience for a student is getting a job out of the three extra years of education? If you think about it, once the student is out into the industry he or she is bound to learn all of those extra skills that the remaining developers want anyway.