The industry operates a number of new entrants schemes, some in specific vocational areas, and others giving a broad range of experience.  Skillset supports some of these schemes and candidates take a Skillset Professional Qualification whilst taking part in the scheme. Overall, there is a low uptake of apprenticeship schemes in this sector.

Skillset Professional Standards and Qualification offer NVQs for film, television, video and multimedia industries which take place in work settings.  These NVQs develop individual skills, knowledge and experience in every area of the industry such as costume, animation, broadcast journalism and camera to a professional standard.  NVQs within this industry are achieved from professional work assessed by qualified assessors and not by exams.

Source: Skillset website 2005

Click here for the Skillset qualification strategy which has detailed information on current provision and future developments.

Recruitment of people into the sector is often accompanied by employer-based training (both highly formalised and less formal on-the-job training) which is particularly a result of the awareness of the changing nature of skills and skill requirements.  The future of education and training in this sector will be the responsibility of HR planning as this is particularly not undertaken in small companies which dominate the sector’s employers.

Skillset and the British Film Institute have developed and run a database of courses containing nearly 5,000 entries of long and short courses offered in further and higher education institutions, within industry, and with independent training providers across the UK.  For more information go to the Skillset website.
 

Source: Skillset website 2005

For more information go to the training section of the Skillset website. 

A new pathway will be developed for school based provision for 14-19 year olds.  The curriculum and qualifications will develop and nurture creativity plus equip young people with some of the skills and knowledge they need for future employment in the industry.

Applied media qualifications will be offered as part of a broader range of pathways.

Further education colleges specialising in vocational training for specific occupations, in some instances linked to apprenticeship programmes, will offer relevant qualifications, based on agreed standards and endorsed by the industry.

For those wishing to progress onto higher education, the range of options will include foundation degrees designed and delivered in partnership with the industry.

Employers of all sizes will recruit and train new entrants offering ‘apprenticeship’ programmes to graduates and non-graduates.  These will be structured, industry agreed schemes which new entrants will work towards appropriate industry recognised qualifications and obtain wider employability skills.

A list of Skillset supported training providers is available on the Skillset website.

The experience of staff and freelancers in accessing skills development and support is very different.  Skillset’s 2003 workforce survey found that:

• 94% of freelancers had experienced barriers to receiving training
• 79% had never received any structured career advice or guidance.
• 27% of freelancers compared to 4% of employees reported fear of losing work
• 37% compared to 72% of employees said that employers had contributed to some kind of training
• 40% of freelancers compared to 24% of employees found it difficult to assess the quality of courses

Source: Skillset 2005a

For more information on the training support for freelancers go to the Skillset website.

63% of the television industry’s workforce are graduates.

If the current skills demands in the television industry are to be adequately met there will need to be significant changes to the organisation of training, together with a focused and targeted investment at both a regional and nation level. 

Although the applicant to job ratio in the television industry is very high, employers consistently express concerns about the quality of applicants which has serious implications for future education and training provision.

In the television industry there is a particular concern about meeting the training needs of freelancers.  Most new entrants start as freelancers and the lowering of standards is a concern for the industry.  It is necessary to ensure that existing freelancers are able to locate specialist high quality and affordable provision.

Source: Skillset 2005a

46% of the feature film workforce hold a postgraduate qualification or an undergraduate degree or diploma.  This is considerably higher than the proportion of graduates in the UK workforce as a whole (19% of the economically active population aged 16 or older, according to the LFS 2003).  In comparison with the 2003 Skillset Workforce Survey, the feature film workforce are less likely than the audio visual workforce to have graduate level qualifications (66%).  This is partly due to the older age profile of the film survey respondents.

Source: Skillset 2005c