Screen Sectors’ Skills Task Force Unveils UK Recommendations

Among the recommendations are a new remit for a pan-sector strategic skills body which will be created through the transformation of existing training organisation ScreenSkills.

Other recommendations include apprenticeship reform, strengthening partnerships with the education sector, and new plans to develop a pan-sector funding model.

The Task Force, made up of 28 organisations from across the sector was convened to respond to the BFI Skills Review published in June 2022.

Beginning in April 2023, the Task Force engaged across its membership and with the wider sector through working groups, consultations and a skills investment survey that revealed that over £100m of collective investment is being spent on skills development by the sector each year.

The Task Force is chaired by former head of Amazon Studios Europe Georgia Brown, with John McVay (Pact CEO) as Vice Chair, and Oliver Lang as consultant.

Brown said “The Film and TV industry is a dynamic part of the UK Creative Industries, and as an innovative, world-leading centre for content production, there remains a major growth opportunity in the decade ahead. However, to achieve this growth, we need a high-skilled workforce and despite significant commitment already being made, there remains a burgeoning disconnect between an increasingly strained workforce and the demand for skills that the industry makes of it.”

“To create the skilled, sustainable, diverse, and inclusive workforce required for the future, we need radical transformation from the ground up. Our three proposals - to strengthen strategy and partnership; to support sustainable growth and sustainable careers; and to put work-based training at the heart of skills development - are designed to move the sector beyond a reactive response to the immediate challenges and economic climate, and instead work together to seek long-term resolution of the skills challenge in the screen sectors,” continued Brown.