For over a decade the High-end TV Skills Fund has been working hand-in-hand with industry to support and develop the TV workforce. Using contributions from qualifying productions, the Fund directs investment where it most needed via training and career development opportunities across the UK.
These decisions are shaped by the senior high-end TV (HETV) industry professionals who make up the Fund’s Skills Council and Working Groups, and identify areas of most need. Paramount among these considerations is how to make the industry as accessible as possible to everyone and provide pathways to those looking to join the industry or progress.
Improving access is a principle that remains vital in improving the equality of the sector and one central to the Fund’s workforce support. At this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, the Fund hosts a panel themed around social mobility, inviting guests to discuss the challenges to entry and progression and how we can overcome them, to enable more people to have a thriving screen career.
Kaye Elliott, Director of HETV Skills Fund, ScreenSkills, said: “I’m delighted the HETV Skills Fund is hosting this panel at Edinburgh. The festival enables us to come together to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry and this panel will provide a forum to discuss this important topic. Our industry thrives on a diverse workforce and that messaging has been at the heart of ScreenSkills and the HETV Fund’s work and rooted in the Funds training programmes and workforce support since its launch in 2013."
Joining Kaye on the panel is Marcia Williams, Director of Equity & Inclusion, Channel 4, Josie Dobrin OBE, Co-founder and Executive Chair, Creative Access and Michaela McCaffrey, a member of the latest cohort of the Fund’s progression initiative, Leaders of Tomorrow. The three-year inclusion programme provides comprehensive and tailored support to those identified by senior colleagues as ready to step up to a more senior role and is focused on widening the make-up of our future leaders in the long term.
On joining the programme Michaela spoke of it being a vehicle to provide viable pathways to those from all backgrounds. “I think my ultimate goal is to become a leader that can open doors as I go for people that would otherwise not have an opportunity. I couldn’t always see a way into this industry so it’s really important for me as I progress to be a model for people who felt like that as well.”
"Our industry thrives on a diverse workforce and that messaging has been at the heart of ScreenSkills and the HETV Fund’s work and rooted in the Funds training progammes and workforce support since its launch in 2013."
Also on the panel is producer Barrington Robinson who took part in the Fund’s co-producer programme on The Responder (BBC) and has since worked on A Town Called Malice (Sky) – both contributors to the Fund. He said: “We need to broaden the range of our offering and access. This includes increasing the shapes and shades of the people, places and things we include at all levels, opening doors and providing pathways for those from all backgrounds and ensuring they have a route to succeed in our industry.”
The Fund’s pre-new entrant programme, First Break, was developed to do just that. It works with production companies, broadcasters, streamers and local partners across the UK to de-mystify entry into the TV industry for those who otherwise think it wasn’t a viable career option.
Since its launch in 2019, the programme has worked with 24 productions across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England to help hundreds of candidates receive their first taste of production and a viable pathway into the industry.
Tony Schumacher, writer of BAFTA-nominated BBC drama, The Responder, was another whose entry into the industry received a boost through the Fund when he was accepted onto the HETV Fund's Writers Champion Programme delivered in partnership with Dancing Ledge.
Tony had his career changed through its mentorship. He said: “The programme just came totally out the blue for me. I was just this dope in Liverpool who’d written a spec script and sent it to a production in Liverpool and one day not long after I had sent it in, Jimmy McGovern popped in the office and saw the script, read it, gave me a ring, and said ‘you want to come out for a pint? I just thought ‘-oh my god!’ He said that he’d been approached by the HETV Skills Fund and explained there was money that could give me an opportunity to just be secure for a couple of months and concentrate on writing something. And that was the start of my journey. I often think The Fund gave me access to people like Jimmy McGovern. Being in their company gives you confidence and it makes you feel like you deserve to be in there, that you could do this for a living. It lifts you in many ways. I was driving a taxi and now I’m talking to Hollywood execs!”