Animation Skills Fund
For the Animation Skills Fund, 2024 was an encouraging year of growth and development. Contributions from productions and companies reached over £200,000 with strong leads already in place for more to follow in the new year. The Fund created the Animation Advisor Group, including members from both Animation UK and the British Film Institute (BFI), and increased the diversity of the Animation Skills Fund to better the reflect the industry it supports.
A widened range of activity was provided for productions and houses including bespoke company training while those at different stages of their animation careers had the opportunity to join the Trainee Finder and Make a Move programmes. More significant strides in training were made through the delivery of key courses. Creative Animation was a comprehensive four-session course delivered by Indielab aimed at mid-to-senior level professionals. A specialised three-day animation layout course delivered by Lupus Films and led by Robin Shaw (Mog's Christmas, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, We're Going on a Bear Hunt). This successful course was delivered directly in response to a call out from the industry for more layout artists.
Children's TV Skills Fund
Increased engagement with both production companies and the sector’s workforce have underpinned another active year for the Children’s TV Skills Fund. 2024 saw encouraging commitment from contributing productions for the Make a Move programme with 13 now working with the Fund to provide step up opportunities as part of this progression initiative, the highest number in a year to date.
There was further expansion of the new entrant initiative, Dream Big!, delivered by thinkBIGGER. The programme, developed by the Fund to pair practical on-the-job experience with tailored training and industry masterclasses, received a 60% increase in the number of companies working with the Fund and offering 3-6 month paid placements to candidates. The programme was opened to animation companies for the first time this year, with participants able to choose a pathways into children’s content via either live-action or animation. All animation placements were part funded by the Animation Skills Fund.
Film Skills Fund
2024 has been a year of growth for the Film Skills Fund. Since April, the number of productions contributing to the Film Skills Fund has increased by 37% over the whole 23/24 figure. The number of productions contributing the Fund cap has grown, as have the number of documentary features who are now more aware of the benefits they can derive via our programmes. This increase in contributing productions – and amount that they are paying in – has resulted in a financial uplift of almost 100% on the total contributions from the 2023/24 period, growing from £850,000 in the whole of 23/24 to £1.6m in the 24/25 year-to-date.
The Fund also developed three training programmes geared towards the professional development of producers. BIFA Springboard: Producers, Producing Truth: for UK documentary feature producers, delivered by Doc Society and First-time Feature Producers, aimed at mid-level producers with looking to produce feature films in excess of £500k.
High-end TV Skills Fund
Continued growth, collaboration and committed support to the workforce was at the centre of another big year for the High-end TV Skills Fund. Since April there have been contributions from 166 new high-end productions, with a further 44 second payments expected, resulting in an increase of 26 productions from the previous year. This saw a total of £2.5 million more committed to the Fund than the same period last year.
There were significant developments in training too, including in the Trainee Finder programme. The flagship new entrant initiative evolved this year as the Fund collaborated with the Film Skills Fund to offer placements in both film and TV productions, offering improved flexibility to trainees and responding to the workforce’s trend of moving more freely between the two.
Improving access to the industry was a cornerstone of the year’s activity. The Fund hosted a panel at Edinburgh TV Festival discussing social mobility within HETV and committed to new bursary initiatives designed to help remove financial barriers to career progression. Training and support aimed at improving access for all saw over 400 professionals take part in a number of courses that spread awareness on working with deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent (DDN) crew as well as a new access bursary initiative providing further support.
Unscripted TV Skills Fund
During a period of challenges in the sector, the Unscripted TV Skills Fund was committed to supporting the workforce across 2024 through tailored training opportunities and knowledge sharing.
One-to-one coaching sessions were developed that aimed to help people navigate their career during a turbulent period and keep them working in the industry. It proved a hugely popular initiative with 114 candidates receiving one-hour standalone coaching and a further 28 embarking on a six-month coaching programme.
More opportunities were created through a collaboration with the High-end TV Skills Fund and the creation of the new HETV unscripted working group. With unscripted having an increasing presence within high-end productions, the Funds worked together to co-fund training for archive researchers and VFX management.
As part of job specific training programmes developed by the Fund in areas such as development researcher, junior editor and production assistant, 125 part-funded work-based placements were offered this year, a huge increase on the combined number from the previous two years (133 placements).