Our mission
To create an industry culture where both decision-makers and freelancers see skills, development and training as indispensable to professional growth and long-term career success.
“As a female freelancer from a working-class and ethnic minority background, I’ve rarely felt I had a real voice. Being part of this working group feels meaningful. Each meeting leaves me feeling we’re contributing to long-overdue change. But it will take a cultural shift - and real engagement from employers - to allow our work to have impact. These actions will help those wishing to return to TV, or have a portfolio career in this streamer-first era.”
Our approach to date
Led by the freelance members of the Working Group, and core participants from industry organisations, we have identified five key areas on which to focus our work:
- Culture and language - around skills, training and professional development
- The value of training schemes and interventions - advocating transparency around the value of training schemes and interventions.
- Clarify the professional development pipeline - understanding and communicating the responsibilities freelancers, production companies and broadcasters hold in creating a sustainable pipeline of well-trained talent.
- Valuing and recognising transferable skills - fostering cross-genre, cross-role and transferability of skills to adjacent industries.
- Retention of skilled freelancers - addressing issues around retention of skilled freelancers, especially for those from under-represented groups.
We are currently working hard on two important areas:
- Skills-based CVs - empowering freelancers for recruitment success both within TV and when seeking work in adjacent industries, if desired.
- Personal development Plans - helping freelancers to identify their career goals and clarify which training and development opportunities will help them get there
As well as allowing freelancers to take ownership of their career goals, we want to work with industry partners to allow companies to automatically plug-in to freelancers’ PDPs and use Skills-based CV’s to widen their opportunities.