The Skills Review for film and high-end television, that was commissioned by the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport and conducted by the BFI, is published today with a string of recommendations for how the industry must collaborate to support skills.
Informed by ScreenSkills research published last week which forecast likely labour market shortages and potential for further growth, the Skills Review highlights positive examples of what industry via ScreenSkills is already delivering on careers, outreach, training and other career development as well as acknowledging more is required to support production growth.
The review highlights there is an urgent need for increased investment and concludes that the production sector needs to contribute at least 1% of all production budgets to train their existing and future workforce. Should industry investment not sufficiently increase, the review recommends that the UK Government explore mandating investment in skills development and training, linked to production spend.
Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive, said: “This report has dug into one of the most critical challenges facing the production sector and puts us, with Government and industry, on a roadmap to address a range of fundamental issues that sit at the core. The review also gives us the evidence to support a workplace reset, which is long overdue. If we can get this right, as well as investing in our crew and capitalising on the opportunity presented by our industry’s growth, we can accelerate creating a workforce that genuinely reflects our society. As we do that we must also urgently address negative working practices and cultures.”
ScreenSkills, with its industry leadership, looks forward to working with the BFI and the Government on next steps. Seetha Kumar, CEO ScreenSkills, said today: “This report recognises the strategic leadership, financial investment and value in kind already provided by industry in skills and talent development via ScreenSkills alongside all we have delivered under the BFI’s Future Film Skills strategy. That existing good work across education, outreach, in-work training and other career development must be built on and scaled up significantly to support continued growth.
“The need is for everyone to work collaboratively on a sustainable long-term skills strategy and plan - a unified approach - recognising that stop-start funding and initiatives that aren’t joined up will not address what must be done if the UK is to capitalise on the potential for even greater success in film and television.”
The ScreenSkills Forecast of labour market shortages and training investment needs in film and high-end TV production, carried out by consultants Nordicity with Saffery Champness LLP, estimated that film and high-end TV will need a further 15,130 to 20,770 full-time workers by 2025 and that up to £104.3 million will need to be invested annually in training the new and existing workforce by 2025.