Ziggy Gaji found ScreenSkills after a festival job inspired a career change. Following a varied media career she developed an interest in hair and make-up while doing face painting at UK festivals and attended an intensive course on makeup artistry at Iver Academy. Ziggy later made a successful application to join the high-end TV Trainee Finder programme.
She spoke about how the initiative has helped her journey: “Being on the ScreenSkills high-end TV Trainee Finder programme has given me a platform, especially as I am a more mature trainee, to start a new journey in hair and make-up. Competition is fierce in hair and make-up and I’m very grateful and feel very lucky on my journey.”
Ziggy felt she benefitted from the reputation of the programme within the industry, saying: “productions know that ScreenSkills have done their research and found a good, broad range of trainees. You benefit from ScreenSkills giving support to the production company and the access they give to you. ScreenSkills sends you different jobs all the time and it’s up to you to apply to them”.
Through the Trainee Finder programme, Ziggy quickly found herself working on a high profile production. “I got a placement on The Stephen Lawrence Story, which I’m particularly proud of.”
It was an experience she would “recommend to anyone”, continuing: “you don’t have to be straight out of university – there are plenty of opportunities for more mature trainees too or those that want to transfer their skills.”