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Supporting the next generation of game developers in Pakistan

March 29, 2022 in News | 9 min. read
Unity Bootcamp in Pakistan
Unity Bootcamp in Pakistan
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In October 2020, Unity launched its Charitable Fund in association with Tides Foundation. The purpose of this fund is to support nonprofit organizations and social impact creators who are making a positive difference in the world.

Generation is on a mission to transform education-to-employment systems and help prepare, place, and support people into life-changing careers that would otherwise be inaccessible. They’re not only a Unity Social Impact grantee, but a valuable partner in pushing our inclusive economic initiatives forward. Through the Charitable Fund, Generation was granted $250K to run a Unity training bootcamp in Pakistan with the goal of upskilling and placing at least 80% of participants into jobs within 90 days. They’re on track to exceed this target! Read on to learn more about the program and its outcomes.

The bootcamp

“The curriculum was designed well. I enjoyed using the Unity Learn platform, working with the course instructors and getting to know the other learners. It was an amazing experience, so thank you” - Muhammad Asad

Together, we launched the three-month Junior Unity Developer bootcamp in October 2021, welcoming 95 learners from 39 cities across Pakistan. Our learners came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 universities where the chance of landing a job within the tech sector is highly competitive.

The program combined technical elements from the Unity Essentials and Junior Programmer Pathways on Unity Learn with Generation’s curriculum on behavioral and career success skills. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our curriculum design teams worked closely together to provide the best possible virtual learning experience. Generation provided devices to learners without adequate equipment.

Unity Learn

Unity Learn is Unity’s online education platform, designed to give learners the resources they need to become confident Unity creators. With over 750 hours of free live and on-demand learning content for all experience levels, Unity Learn makes it easier for aspiring developers to reach their goals.

For this initiative, we leveraged the Pathways courses as well as the functionalities that Learn provides. Learners were able to track their progress, earn XP and unlock assets by completing Units, and submit their projects for feedback. Learners also had access to live instructors to help guide them through the curriculum and provide support when working independently.

A day in the life of a game developer

Bootcamp participants using Unity

As part of the bootcamp, learners took part in employer site visits to get a taste of the working world. Through these excursions, learners benefited from:

  • Exposure to professional working environments and in-progress projects
  • Individual practice projects to give them a sense of the work they’d be doing in their future careers
  • Feedback from employers to help them improve and prepare for the job market

Mentorship

Throughout the program, participants also had access to personal and professional support. This included wellness mentors, to help with their emotional and behavioral needs, and employability coaches, who provided insight and advice for finding roles in the real-time 3D industry. Mentors supported each learner for the duration of the bootcamp and will remain available for their first six months on the job.

Participant feedback

We recently had the opportunity to host a roundtable discussion with nine of the bootcamp’s graduates. This gave us the chance to ask them about their experience and if they felt prepared for jobs in the industry. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Below are a few quotes from the graduates:

“The course improved my Unity skills, but also focused on our personality and built up our professional skills. It wasn’t just Unity – it was also how to deal with challenges and solutions that we would face in the real-time industry.” - Farwar Bashir

“I was one of the learners that came from a non-coding background. This bootcamp was well-designed in that it allowed me to learn Unity on the most basic level, especially on the Unity Learn platform. It was the first time I was able to make a car move because I wrote some code, and it worked! It really gave me a boost.” - Ahmad Khan

"When I came out of the interview room, I had the biggest smile on my face, and I knew in my heart that yes I got the job, I got the job! I received a call the day after the interview, 'yes you got the job, please come to our office for negotiation of your salary'." - Humaira Salamat

Overall outcomes

3 participants in the Unity Bootcamp

At the end of the three-month bootcamp, we achieved:

  • An over 85% graduation rate between both cohorts
  • An 87% participant job placement rate within 75 days of graduating
  • A total of 14 female graduates, with 13 placed into relevant jobs
  • An average salary increase of 163% among all placed graduates
  • A majority of graduates now working as Junior Unity Developers or Associate Software Engineers

A majority of our graduates were from smaller cities where access to employment opportunities in the Real-time 3D industry are scarce. Along with this we had a sizable portion of learners with no educational background in Computer Science or associated fields, who would've otherwise found it very difficult to land a job within the Real-time 3D industry without the necessary experience and educational background. Needless to say, this trial bootcamp was a success!

This is only the start of our partnership with Generation. We’re currently supporting two more cohorts in Pakistan set to graduate in spring 2022. We’re also planning to replicate this initiative in Colombia. There’s still much to do to ensure everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to pursue the career of their dreams, however, organizations like Generation are helping us move toward that goal.

About Unity’s social impact work and Charitable Fund

The work we’re doing with Generation is one of several ways in which we are making an impact and empowering communities to foster positive social change. In 2021, we:

  • Awarded more than $4M in grants
  • Supported 983 global causes and volunteered 3,240 hours
  • Prepared 18K learners to access entry-level real-time 3D jobs
  • Equipped 560K students and educators to access RT3D curriculum and training
  • Donated over $1.2B in software grants to schools, students, and educators

Learn more about our Social Impact work.

If you’re a non-profit organization interested in our Social Impact grants, get in touch.

March 29, 2022 in News | 9 min. read

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