Stressed about employment rates in Games

Hey Yakisora. I saw you followed me, and I appreciate you wanting my opinion!
Let me break this down into sections and try and talk through each bit.
Digital Art, Animation and Games Design Level 3 BTEC - what does this course involve? What kind of work have you made from it? I am not that familiar with these sorts of BTECs as I took A-levels but I am curious what work they had you do and how this might've prepared you for a games course. Have you also done art in your free time?
Yes, Games is currently experiencing mass layoffs and the already-competitive industry has spiralled. I see people who are very talented and have previous work experience struggling - so you're right to feel worried about it. But just because it's super competitive doesn't mean it isn't possible at all - you just have to be very, very stubborn - and very sure it's what you want. As PQ says, just because you did this BTEC it doesn't mean you're locked out of other career options. Hell, even if you do Game Art it doesn't lock you out of other career options - people who did Game Art go into things like 3D visualisation for advertising and design, graphic design, other media pathways - all the time. Someone I graduated with has just started a tattoo apprenticeship! So it doesn't permanently lock you out of other careers
Universities for Game Art -
MMU - Not a university I know a bunch about so my opinion here is going to just be - be careful about applying to a course that is relatively new and can't showcase much previous student work.
DMU- Is where I went to university and studied Game Art - I rate this course as being very solid and have good connections - it will give back to you what you put into it - but I agree that Leicester isn't a great city, lol.
As PQ says - what are you other options? Have you considered Bournemouth, Staffordshire, Hertfordshire? I would rate all three of those as good quality games courses. If you've already locked your choices in remember that Clearing is an option.
Portfolio Requirements - vary place-to-place that you apply. Always read their particular portfolio guidance, it will often be linked on the course information page under entry requirements. On average, it is between 8-20 "pieces" which you should consider annotated "pages" or slides of work. My general copy/paste portfolio advice is a combination of examples of iteration/development/design work (often the kind of thing you might do in school), some drawings from life (e.g. still life, figure drawing, technical drawing) and imaginative work (work that demonstrates combining ideas imaginatively). Some places might request a variety of mediums, and this is often course-dependent. In the case of Game Art they often want to see evidence of your ability to work in 3D space - be this physical modelling like clay or sculpture or prop-making/craft work, or digital 3D modelling examples.
Placement year/studying abroad - whether you tick the box when you apply or not is usually irrelevant as placement is not guaranteed on really any games courses. If you fail to acquire a placement/internship you will typically default to going into your final year. The reverse is also true - if you don't apply to do a 4 year degree and get an internship, they will usually extend you to have a sandwich year. Seeking internships/placements should be done from the earliest opportunity in your 2nd year and will typically require you to apply constantly for several months. I dedicated the majority of my free time to writing cover letters, establishing my portfolio and doing interview prep during my second year, strategically sacrificing marks in modules that were less relevant to my desired career path. Nearly everyone I know who successfully got an internship had a very similar approach. Studying abroad (assuming you are a UK citizen) - simply doesn't happen for games. No company (even major companies) are willing to take the risk of a VISA on someone with no previous work experience. I'm not saying it has never happened ever, but I would be exceedingly surprised especially given the current climate of the industry. If you're dead-set on doing a year abroad you may be better off taking a different course or looking into seeing if there's an option to study abroad - where you might do a term or two at a university abroad.
Will I still have a good chance at getting employed even without an internship? - Yes, many people do it. I was the only person in my year to land an internship but there were several success stories out of my group. We had people go on to be Junior technical artists, junior character artists and junior 3D generalists. Applying to junior roles will be much the same story as applying to internships - you will need to be proactive, persistent, and incredibly resilient to rejection. The odds still aren't "good" but it's by no means impossible if you really want to do it.
What other pathways are there if I get this degree just in case it doesn't work out for me and is it viable to learn python on the side -will that be a good point for employers? Yes- learn python. I wish I had done more of it, it continues to be incredibly useful in my day-to-day. It will open doors for you to apply to a more varied range of roles and will support you if you land elsewhere in tech. As previously stated - people often do sidestep into other creative industries. 3D is a skill that can definitely be applied to other industries. People from DMU Game Art have historically worked with brands on marketing visualisation, interior design companies, and even things like 3D visualisations for medical purposes.
How do people even get jobs at AAA companies and how stable are those jobs? My route was through an internship but it is also fairly common for people to start out in smaller companies and ultimately go for these roles at larger studios. As an intern, my job was fairly insecure as I was on a contract, but after I had my contract converted to a permanent position I A) got a significant pay rise and B) became eligible for benefits like dentistry, health insurance, pension plans, stock accrual, etc. I would describe my current job as comparatively stable to others who work office-type jobs. Of course there is always a fear if a project does badly will it lead to layoffs etc - and the truth is we can't ever really know - but especially given I've been there several years now and have specialist knowledge for their in-house tools and programs, I believe I now have some job security that I didn't have before.
Best of luck to you and I hope you find a solution that works well for you. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any other Qs for me.

I was really hoping you'd reply ! Thank you! I'm incredibly stubborn into wanting to go into this field and I was wondering for the portfolio, do we need to write a lot of annotation?
For my current course, we are required to make a website with all of our work on it so typically I have stuff like this:
Fiddling with unreal
Asset creation
chessboard on maya
interactive map
and some more. On the side I do traditional art as well,
gouache study
coloured pencil study
not really sure how to format my work and what other things I should include.