“If creativity is the driving force that inspires the incredible content that we love and trust and people are the engine that makes that content come to life, then talent and skills are the fuel that powers that engine.” - Seetha Kumar, CEO, ScreenSkills
In 2018 Creative Skillset became ScreenSkills – the industry-funded and business-led skills body for the screen industries across the UK. Through its separate Skills Funds, formed from contributions from production companies, streamers and indies, ScreenSkills starts to deliver training and development programmes to support the UK’s screen workforce.
These programmes are informed by its close industry ties to target the most needed skills shortage areas, and the body’s own aims to ensure the building of a truly inclusive and representative UK-wide workforce, enabling growth and innovation and actively contributing to the future creativity, health and prosperity of the sector and the wider UK.
It is announced that ScreenSkills will deliver the Future Film Skills programme following a competitive call for applications. Funded by the National Lottery and commissioned by the British Film Institute, ScreenSkills delivered training opportunities that helped more than 119,000 people progress in the screen career over a five year period, adhering to the programme’s broad aims:
- To encourage people to consider a screen career through entry-level opportunities
- To support those already in the industry
- To encourage and welcome people from under-represented backgrounds in the industry.
Read more about the success and numbers from the Future Film Skills programme
Open Doors is also launched in 2018. Part of the pre-entrant initiatives, ScreenSkills members visit different parts of the UK to encourage people to enter the screen industry. The series of regional events guides people through the variety and scale of jobs available within the industry, offering advice on how to start a screen career journey, delivering practical workshops and providing useful resources to those in attendance.