The first year saw significant investment from ScreenSkills that established key training initiatives to help the UK screen industries meet the demand of the growing production boom. A focus on new entrants and those exploring the possibility of joining the screen industries saw the development of new initiatives to help build the next generation of production talent.
First Break, funded and developed by the High-end TV Skills Fund, was launched with the aim of de-mystifying entry into the TV industry for those from socially excluded groups and ethnically diverse backgrounds.
It gave candidates their first taste of a working production providing shadowing opportunities, paid placements, one-to-one career development and bespoke support. The programme’s first cohort received placements on behind the camera roles on the production of ITV shows Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Since its launch First Break has supported 117 people with paid placements on 19 productions across the UK.
Discover more
Read more about First Break
The same year saw the launch of Discover Creative Careers, the pilot conceived by the DCMS and partnered by ScreenSkills to inspire and inform young people about careers in the creative industries. The first year saw 112,000 people benefit and in 2023 ScreenSkills became the lead delivery partner targeting 77 regions across England over the next three years.
The creation of career maps further improves the knowledge around the various screen industry roles. These provide detailed and easily digestible information on what each screen role entails, what path to take to secure a position in the role and how each department works together on a production.
Find your new career
View our career maps to understand more about the roles available
ScreenSkills Select was launched to endorse and enhance screen courses that develop industry-ready students. It enabled prospective students to identify which higher education courses best prepare them for careers in the industry while allowing colleges and universities to grow the reputation of their courses and for industry to select the best new talent. It becomes a model of a collaborative approach that connects industry, education and emerging talent.
Read more about ScreenSkills Select and discover which courses are endorsed.
A ground-breaking initiative to establish a network of excellence for film and television in the nations and regions was piloted with the launch of Centre of Screen Excellence in Yorkshire. It saw ScreenSkills work with Screen Yorkshire and the National Film and Television School to amplify the impact of targeted investment and training and build a greater skilled workforce outside London and the South East.
Following the pilot, the centre opened in Leeds in February 2020 with a second Centre launched in Elstree the following year.
Read more: How the Centre of Screen Excellence Yorkshire is bridging the gap between education and industry
Read more: The Centre of Screen Excellence Yorkshire celebrates its second anniversary
In an aim to support real change across the screen industry, ScreenSkills launches its first e-learning module, tackling bullying and harassment at work. It is designed to help people recognise and address harassment and bullying behaviours in themselves and others, building on guidelines developed across film, television and games industries by the BFI and BAFTA. To date, more than 22,000 have completed the training.
View the full suite of ScreenSkills e-learning modules.