School vs. work

Hello everyone,
as Aphra correctly pointed out, the discussion was going a little bit off-topic, so I hope you don’t mind if we continue here.

[rant]
It’s been since I was 16 that I’m hearing companies complaining that fresh graduates don’t have the necessary experience to get a job. On the other hand, most of them aren’t providing solutions to it. The most feasible way would be that this companies take 3rd and 4th year undergrad for 6 months for an internship and then hire them once they finish school. This way they won’t have to train and pay someone for one year but 3/4 months for two summers, plus when it comes to hire someone, you already have someone that has worked for you and that you can trust for the job.

A lot of big companies are already doing that (Microsoft, Oracle, Lionhead, etc. these are the ones that came first to my mind) but how many *game* companies are doing that? Most of them are working under NDA, so what if someone does an internship for you but then he/she goes working for someone else or startup his/her own company? Plus, giving that the game industry is always rushing, who can find the time to train an undergrad?

Going back to Havok, I do think they need people with certain skills, but what the US offer that can’t be found (if not in Ireland) in Europe? Does Crytek ring a bell? Are their college so much better than "ours"?

On the other hand, I also agree on giving student a more solid and up to date background to start with, but that can happen mostly using the latest technologies, thus teaming up with the leader companies in the industry: Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft etc. I’ve been working on the CryEngine 3 for almost 6 months, so it is possible without having a big studio next door.
And I do not agree on saying that those who teach can’t do: they just decided to share their knowledge with students rather then within a company.

Finally, I’d say that not having big studios in Ireland is not the end of the world. I think there’s a lot of potential and investments are being made for young entrepreneurs with fresh and innovative ideas. And considering how much innovation big studios can afford…
[/rant]

Just my 2c