Stewart's praise for games centre

The racing legend was visiting Abertay University to hear how its award-winning technology centre is run.

He was there as a member of the International Advisory Board, a group of senior business people who look at ways of improving Scotland's economy.

Sir Jackie asked to call into the university after being told about the accolades the centre had received.

Students last year won a Bafta "One to Watch" award for a computer game they designed called "Ragnarawk" which allows gamers to fight evil using a magical guitar.

'Creative people'

Sir Jackie told the BBC Scotland news website: "This has become a centre of creativity of which I think Scotland is justly proud, and it's become internationally recognised as a very creative cell.

"We have to change our ways. We're no longer ship building, we're no longer in steel to any great extent, a lot of the industries we led the world in.

"We've got to grow new creative people.

"We can't stay to traditional industry and we can't stay to traditional education either, we've got to be more creative than that."

Abertay University principal, Prof Bernard King, has urged the Scottish Government and business to start investing more in the new technological industries and courses.

He believes it is the only way Scotland will manage to cash-in on what he believes will become a massive industry.

"My question constantly is 'What share of that growth, of say $20bn a year, does Scotland plan to get'?" he said.

"How much do we want and then how do we go about getting it?

"We Scots have actually got to rise to the challenge of meeting the needs of the economy.

"This is a very tough business. When we say degrees in computer games technology, it requires a lot of maths, and physics, and computing and three-dimensional programming.

"People work enormously hard in this business, so you've got to be talented, educated, hard-working, ambitious and committed."