What we do

ScreenSkills is the industry-led skills charity for the screen industries. We work across the UK to ensure that film, television (including children's and high-end drama), VFX (visual effects), animation and games have the skills and talent they need.

We provide insight, career development and other opportunities to help grow and sustain the skilled and inclusive workforce which is the foundation stone of the UK's global screen success.

Our work includes:

  • Identifying skills gaps – current and future – across the screen industries and the whole of the country to provide an evidence base for investment in skills and training
  • Providing careers information
  • Mapping and quality-marking professional pathways to improve entry-level diversity and work readiness
  • Supporting development at every stage of a professional career in screen including through mentoring and offering bursaries.

Our approach is:

  • Industry-informed and owned: shaped by business intelligence and industry demands
  • Efficient: direct industry input delivers skills and training to meet priority needs
  • Partnership-led: harnessing the expertise of trade bodies, agencies, guilds, broadcasters, indies and others including the Royal Television Society, BAFTA and the British Film Institute (BFI)
  • Inclusive and accessible: embedding diversity in the workforce we help build.

Our revenue includes:

  • Contributions paid by industry through the skills investment funds
  • National Lottery funds awarded by the BFI
  • Funds from key UK broadcasters and independent production companies
  • Awards from partner organisations such as Arts Council England.

In a fragmented industry where many key workers are freelance, we provide targeted, efficient interventions to retain and build the skilled workforce which underpins the UK’s screen success. Partnership with other organisations such as Creative & Cultural Skills (CCS), who support the broader arts, reinforces key messaging on the importance of skills and training – built on a good, rounded education in schools – to the country’s thriving creative industries.

How we do it

ScreenSkills supports talent at every level, from new entrants to programmes for mid-career professionals and executives and across the industry, from production accounting to exhibition and grips to writers.

We provide or are developing services to support the finding, nurturing and retention of award-winning talent including:

  • Careers information: offering crucial information on the jobs in screen and pathways to them
  • Apprenticeships: creating new apprenticeship standards to answer skills needs
  • Skills forecasting: gathering robust evidence to inform skills investment
  • Mentoring: a standardised mentoring programme for talent at all levels
  • Excellence clusters: targeted skills development across nations and regions
  • Quality marking: industry approval for higher and further education and short courses
  • Bursaries: support for those who need help with fees, transport, living or childcare costs
  • Training: world-class professional development courses.

ScreenSkills is a registered charity, no. 1015324, and on the Scottish Charity Register no. SC039556. It is also a company registered as ScreenSkills, company no. 2576828. Its registered address is the head office at 94 Euston Street, London, NW1 2HA.