Avid gamer Philip Moore proved to be a real winner when he landed his dream job as an apprentice with a leading mobile design agency that creates apps and games for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Nokia and Android devices.
Philip Moore, 21, from Cramlington, beat off competition from more than 100 applicants to win an apprenticeship position with Newcastle-based games company Fluid Pixel.
Philip had just finished a full time Level 3 National Diploma in Media Production – Games Development – at Newcastle College when he began searching for apprenticeship opportunities to help him continue his education.
Course Leader, Gael Milligan supported Phillip with his application and secured an additional year’s support through Fluid Pixel to allow Philip to study a Foundation Degree.
She said:” Philip always had a clear view of his future career and chose to study the games development course as it offered him a vocationally-related qualification which would ultimately help him to gain employment in the games industry.
“Successfully securing the apprenticeship training programme at Fluid Pixel is a fantastic opportunity for Philip to apply the practical skills and knowledge he developed throughout the course in a real working environment as a well as improving both his personal and professional skills at a higher level and earning while he is learning.”
Philip said: “I’ve always loved playing computer games and then to find myself actually getting to play them as part of my job is something I still can’t quite believe.
“I wanted to do an apprenticeship because it was different to university. I wanted to get hands on real world industry experience as quick as I could.”
After joining Fluid Pixel, Philip began a Level 4 Advanced Apprenticeship and then progressed on to an FdSc Foundation Degree in Games Development at Newcastle College as part of his training.
The apprenticeship was initially only advertised as a Level 3 position requiring employer support for just one year, but Fluid Pixel Director Stuart Varrall agreed to support Philip for two years through the higher Level 4 apprenticeship.
Stuart said: “We received huge interest in the position, but I chose Philip because of his prior experience and willingness to learn.
“Gael approached me about helping Philip through a two year apprenticeship programme instead of the one year I had planned, because he had already achieved a Level 3. I agreed because I could see that it would be of long term benefit to Philip and to the company.
“I set up Fluid Pixel just after leaving university. When the business started to grow I chose the apprenticeship route as I wanted to be able to invest time in developing someone that understood the business and how we work. If Philip had come to us after university he would have developed a very different style. This way we were able to hone his skills to meet the exact requirements of the business, but still support his continued education through a Foundation Degree.”
Philip is a now a Quality Architect and Trainee Programmer responsible for all quality control throughout the production process for all new games and apps releases.
Despite being a relatively new company, Fluid Pixel has already positioned itself at the forefront of media technologies working with the latest platforms and boasts a client list including BBC, Nokia and Adobe.
It recently became the first North East company to have its games downloaded two million times from Nokia’s Ovi Store for smartphones.
