Enlight Brings New Esports Career Programs to Train the Next Generation
This Article was contributed by Matthew Carrico, Editorial Intern.
The esports industry continues to grow to favorable levels and has become quite a juggernaut of a field in its own right. The industry has a lot to offer in terms of career choices from event planning to competitive gaming to social media marketing. It has even got to a point where it has caught the attention of investors and sponsors to which a lot of money is put into this market. However, many companies in the industry are looking to improve their equity by focusing on improving the next generation of workers. Esports career preparation company Enlight appears to have a solution.
Enlight has recently announced the establishment of new esports programs with an emphasis on nurturing the skills of students and kick-starting their careers in the esports industry. These new programs will take place over the course of this summer starting on July 19 and running all the way through August 26.
People who are interested in this can apply to one of four programs each with a different focus on various fields in the industry. According to a Announcing @Enlightgg Career Programs: Jumpstart your esports career!
Apply for 1 of 4 programs (7/19-8/26) to learn new skills & use them in running a live event!
🎮Competition/Event Ops
🎥Broadcast Production
📱Social/Community
👩💼Talent Management
https://t.co/OWOpaOMY83 pic.twitter.com/uxMrNyofng
Moving forward, we are now going to highlight the aspects of each of the programs to give a better understanding of what each course can teach you and potentially garner an interest. This will help give insight into what kind of career opportunities these programs can provide with the skills they teach.
First, take a look at competition and event operations. This is the field of esports that deals with the organization and planning of events such as tournaments, career fairs, and even meet and greets with players. In short, they are the people who set the stage for a large majority of the action that takes place in esports. Without a good plan, many things can not come to be. Some potential careers in this field include tournament management/organization, event planning, marketing advisor, and even as an agent to a professional player.
Broadcast production centers around how tournaments and events are streamed/broadcasted across a variety of platforms. This field can teach a variety of skills from learning how to handle editing software such as audio and video editing, knowing the ins and outs of streaming platforms such as Twitch and even on a company’s own broadcasting channel, and setting the proper schedule to begin streaming and broadcasting specific events. They are in charge of recording and editing the events that various people watch from the comfort of their homes. Potential careers in this area include cameraman, audio/video production, and streaming.
Social and community deals with interacting with the fanbase whether it be through the use of social media or in person. The simple act of communication is key to staying connected to your fanbase, and this field also highlights various ways to interact with them. Communication can come in many forms from the simple act of commentary during tournaments to the types of content created for the various social media platforms in order to garner support, expand the fanbase, and quench the thirst for content from existing fans. This field showcases careers such as content creation, social media marketing, hosting/shoutcasting, and esports promotion.
Finally, talent management deals with the gathering and promotion of many of the major figures in the industry be it a professional esports player or company representative. These are people in charge of scouting who make up a majority of the teams that often play in various tournaments similar to traditional sports. For the most part, they are often tasked with promoting and scouting individuals to make up a team. Agents are an obvious career in this area who do their jobs to promote individual players or teams while taking their piece of the revenue. Other careers in this field can include sponsorship/partnership communication and legal/finance to help the teams during dire situations.
These programs look to play out remotely, so do not feel restricted due to your location. There are a variety of technical and interpersonal skills to learn from each of these programs. This includes planning for various events, communication with others in the field, documentation for things such as tournament brackets, journalism, and rulesets, facilitation to make sure everything is on track, teamwork building, and even crisis management to help in a potential PR setting.
By the looks of the general presentation, these programs look to appeal to those who are interested in a career in the esports industry who are not generally gamers. Professional players learn through their own experiences and team building through collegiate programs. There are still plenty of opportunities outside of this. For those interested in these programs, it should be noted that each of the four programs costs $500 (USD) for training that lasts for six weeks. This may seem outrageous but when compared to fees that come with summer college classes it does not seem too overwhelming. Enlight is one of several companies that are looking to nurture the next generation of workers in the esports industry. The industry, in general, looks to grow in market value to $2.96 billion by 2022 with many jobs still to follow. For more information on these programs, check out Enlight’s page dedicated to it.
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