How Schell Games’ year-old apprenticeship program is easing entry into the game development field

Apprenticeships are a popular topic of conversation in Pittsburgh, from XChangeInnovation Week panel discussion to a forum including the likes of Lt. Gov. Austin Davis. In a city in need of new blood to fill the positions created by its growing tech hub status, local leaders such as Deeplocal and Fortyx80 see these hands-on skills-building programs as a way to offer talented — but not necessarily “traditional” — candidates a path into the tech world.

The Shapiro administration felt so strongly about enabling residents to develop job skills that it just allocated $400 million to go toward workforce training, including apprenticeship programs.

“If we’re going to address Pennsylvania’s workforce development issues, we need to create pipelines of talent in key industries like tech, and we need to empower young people to pursue their dreams, no matter what they may be,” the lieutenant governor said during that May forum. “That’s why the Shapiro-Davis budget invests more into apprenticeship programs and brings career and technical training back into the classroom.”

Schell Games, one of Pennsylvania’s largest game developers, is another of the Pittsburgh tech companies training apprentices.

The South Shore-based company is responsible for idea generation, internal IP, educational game development, and even virtual reality games; its work includes the likes of Cloudbreakers, Until You Fall and Pleasant Cove. If you ventured to the 160-person company’s studio, you’d meet developers, artists, engineers, IT workers and admin — as well as Learning and Development Specialist Sara Kissell Vieira, who runs Schell Games’ apprenticeship program. She told Techncial.ly the goal of the program is to remove barriers for people who want to enter the notoriously competitive games industry, but might face obstacles in their pursuit.

“When some people hear ‘video games’ or ‘video games developer,’ they might think, ‘Oh, that means I need to know programming, I need to know coding, I need to have an engineering side.’ And that’s a really important piece, but it’s just one piece,” Vieira said. “There are so many creative opportunities for folks, whether it’s artists, designers, programmers, etc. But there are other ways of being in the game industry as well.”

In partnership with the Community College of Allegheny County, students completing an associate’s degree in multimedia, programming, simulation and gaming have the opportunity to go to Schell Games’ studio to work on studio projects and gain hands-on experience across three years. They spend 20 hours in the classroom and 20 hours on the job — paid. Schell Games also pays selected apprentices’ full tuition.

The program launched in 2022 and only accepts two apprentices per year, for a total of four so far. During their time in the program, Vieira said, apprentices can gain valuable skills to serve them well in their future careers.

“They are learning all of the fundamental skills in game design and programming in art, and all the pieces that it takes to really make the game,” Vieira said. “And then as they’re building those skills, they’re working on studio projects. It’s kind of like a sliding scale, the way where we don’t want to … throw anyone in a situation where they’re going to feel not set up for success.”

On-the-job training has historically meant a candidate didn’t learn how to do their job until they’d already been hired. Vieira said Schell Games’ leadership wanted to change that by ensuring that while apprentices are a part of the program, they receive training and experience at the same time. Vieira has a background in public education, and she recalled her former students’ frustration over the need for experience when applying for jobs. She hopes apprentices will be able to avoid some of the usual obstacles that job seekers face when they’re starting out.

“When you’re applying for jobs, everyone wants you to have experience, but someone has to be willing to give you that experience first,” she said. “That’s just another thing that our apprenticeship also does to equip people for success in the industry.”

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.