Career information, advice and guidance (IAG) is essential for the film industry in order to sustain a creative and skilled workforce.  IAG needs to:

• manage the expectations of would be new entrants
• attract the best talent from diverse cultural and social backgrounds
• offer on-going advice and information to help people develop their career

Routes into the film industry have clearly changed over the last few decades.  In the 1980s, 5% of new entrants had started in the industry in unpaid employment and for those entering the industry after 2000 45% had done some unpaid work.  Today 3 in 10 respondents to the feature film workforce survey had done some unpaid work experience in the industry before getting paid employment.

It is common to work in other audio visual industries prior to entering the film industry.

Source: Skillset/UK Film Council 2005 and Skillset 2005c