British Intelligence Looking for Recruits with Gaming Skills
Calling all young gamers.
The UK's Government Communications Head Quarters, also known as GCHQ, has announced a new apprenticeship scheme for young people and is specifically looking for recruits from the "Xbox generation." Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the new scheme during a speech at Bletchley Park, home to the National Codes Centre and the National Museum of Computing.
"[...] Today, I am announcing a new development programme for Apprentices, which will help to identify and develop talent in school and university age students and give opportunities to 70 new recruits for GCHQ and our other Intelligence Agencies," said Hague, adding that GCHQ will no longer only recruit annual, nor will it be looking only for those with a university degree. Instead, the Government Communications HQ will be looking for individuals with relevant experience or vocation qualifications as part of an effort to attract a wide pool of talent.
Hague said if the UK is to maintain a leading role on cyber issues, it must 'harness' experts from the 'Xbox generation' who have grown up a digital world filled with social media, interactive gaming, and global connectivity.
The Foreign Office says those participating in the SIA Apprentices scheme will be part of a two-year program that will offer a Foundation degree in Communications, Security and Engineering from De Montfort University and a Level 4 Diploma in IT, Software, Web and Telecommunications Professional competence.

The f**k is that?
I have a Diploma in IT and that's the 5'th level here.
Level 4 here is Certificate 4.
They already lost that "leading" role when they allowed the Foreign Secretary to harness "experts" from the 'Xbox generation' Someone please send an email to that moron and tell him that it's the PC gamers he's supposed to be looking for or anyone who shows even the slightest talent on PC's which doesn't include surfing on facebook.
+1 this dude.
Man, everytime I read xbox gamers or wii gamers, my eyes catch on fire. Blasphemy!
@Article, however, the UK government has it right. You cant expect to lead trends on IT or general connectivity if you dont actually understand how the majority (young ppl) handles comms, interactions, slangs and actual goals for the internet in the country. Recruiting night crawlers and butthurt dwellers like us seems like a viable option, given some qualifications (studying engineering or IT carreers, or pro gamers from SC2/other rts leagues atc) are proven.
Besides, again, you cant expect to handle the internet, not even by chance, by letting old and outphased seniors with no expertice in how to actually use the internet for media interpretation, even if they are crazy good programmers or systems admin.
are you serious --- you put intelligence next to british and then you bring xbox ???
Yeah 18-year olds pre-date consoles. They're more like the PC generation.