Jeremy Varcl

Jeremy Varcl has a passion for all things gaming, from tabletop games to mobile apps and video games. He joined the Creative & Digital Media Foundation Apprenticeship at NESCol as part of his school timetable, and after two years, he’s set to continue his studies at university.

Originally from Czechia, 18-year-old Jeremy lives in Turriff and studied for his Foundation Apprenticeship during fifth and sixth year. He spent the first year working towards a National Progression Award (NPA) at Aberdeen City Campus before taking on a placement the following year.

Jeremy said: “The College tries to tailor available workplaces to individual students, but I got particularly lucky with my placement. I have board game and graphic design experience, and this matched up with exactly what Absafe was looking for.”

Absafe is Aberdeen’s only health and safety education charity. The team originally took Jeremy on as a graphic designer for six months to support with illustrations for a new water safety board game they were developing.

However, having already created his own board game at just 16 years old, Jeremy used his expertise and got stuck into revamping the game’s entire concept. Thus, Splash Safe was born!

Jeremy’s flair for gaming and dedication to the project saw him get heavily involved with all aspects of the process. He created prototypes, redesigned the graphics and logo, organised playtesting and marketed the game. Now going through its final checks, Splash Safe will be ready for manufacture this year.

With school and his Foundation Apprenticeship complete, Jeremy is ready to take the next step in his learning journey. He will be heading to Abertay University in September where he will be studying Computer Arts.

He said: “One of the reasons this Foundation Apprenticeship appealed to me was the fact it counts as two Highers so contributed towards my grades for getting into university.”

After university, Jeremy has his sights set on becoming an artist or designer for a video games company, whilst continuing to work on board games as passion projects.

He said: “The tech industry is very competitive and extremely fast-paced, you must be able to hit the ground running. To get into a gaming career, you also need to be able to demonstrate that you’ve spent significant time working on developing games.

“The Foundation Apprenticeship has helped me grow my connections, expand on my professional skills such as accounting and communication, and add to my game design portfolio. It has solidified my goal to work for a company rather than freelance, as I enjoy working with a team and bouncing my ideas off others.”

Jeremy plans to make a return to NESCol one day, with the goal of helping others interested in pursuing game design and development.

“My hope in the future, once I’ve secured a job or become a director, is that I would have the opportunity to come back to NESCol to inspire others.

“Video gaming is a critically underdeveloped industry, particularly in Aberdeen, so it would be rewarding to be able to support other students and tell them about my journey – especially if they started on the Foundation Apprenticeship like me.”