Television
Training and skills for television - including documentaries, entertainment and other non-scripted TV genres - is supported by leading broadcasters through the ScreenSkills Television Skills Fund. (This excludes high-end drama and children's TV who have their own funds.) Other training for television production companies and freelancers is offered by the Indie Training Fund, a not-for-profit members' organisation.
Students, parents and teachers seeking information on careers in TV should visit the Education & Training section.
The ScreenSkills Television Skills Fund is the result of an agreement between UK broadcasters to invest in training for the freelance television workforce. The BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 contribute.
Since it was set up in 2006, the fund has invested more than £10.4 million in the industry through a variety of funding initiatives. The fund supports the delivery of courses and development activity that will benefit those working in non-scripted genres of television across the UK, in response to skills gaps and shortages in those genres. The fund is managed by ScreenSkills in close partnership with the TV Skills Fund Council comprised of key funders and industry figures.
This page lists schemes and programmes the Television Skills Fund has previously supported or is currently supporting. For more information, dates, and application details please contact the scheme directly or email Sarah Joyce at: sarah.joyce@screenskills.com.
Schemes supported by ScreenSkills Television Skills Fund
Series producer programme
Making the step up from producer to series producer is a big leap and recent research highlighted the shortage of series producers in factual, specialist factual, factual entertainment and entertainment.
Now in its third year, this programme aims to help solve this serious skills gap by finding the next generation of brilliant and diverse series producers. This will help the industry win new business and find hit formats which will travel the world.
The prestigious year-long programme is for new or aspiring series producers who are experienced producers with a minimum of three years’ experience at producer/director level. It offers participants training, masterclasses, mentoring, career advice, networking and access and reduced fees to key industry events and festivals. Read more about the scheme and apply here by 7 January 2019.
Digital Cities
A week-long series of free workshops, masterclasses and networking events for the screen industries running in key creative hubs across the UK. Delivered by the BBC Academy with a wide-range of key local stakeholder each event is tailored to the profile of each city. To find out more visit the BBC Digital Cities website.
Format 24:17 - the art of television formats
A one-day conference for producers, indies, broadcasters and students packed with industry-led masterclasses and Q&A sessions designed to encourage a new wave of television format development in the UK.
Production coordinator training programme
This UK-wide programme trained 60 new production coordinators for the TV industry. The two-week training programme giving an overview of the industry and offering training in key disciplines such as budgeting and negotiating ran in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow and was delivered by the BBC Academy in partnership with the Indie Training Fund, TRC, and ITV Studios. Delegates also receive industry mentoring for a year. This programme is currently closed to applications.
Commissioner programme
This programme, developed by the Creative Diversity Network and ScreenSkills, ran for two years, introducing new talent into the commissioning teams at BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, with the aim of increasing the diversity of output across all genres of UK television. The programme is now closed to applications.
Rising Director Scheme
The Rising Directors Scheme is an ambitious training programme to identify and develop diverse, emerging TV directors. Each director was given a budget of £5,000 to make their own three-minute short, with support and ongoing mentoring from renowned documentary executive producers and an intensive directors training programme, which were shown at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018. The directors also benefited from bespoke industry-led masterclasses. Find out more and apply here by 8 January 2019.
Bursaries
ScreenSkills also funds bursaries for individuals working in the UK screen industry as freelancers to fund training courses for career progression. These now include bursaries for attending courses listed on the Skills Passport directory, the new short course resource for freelancers. For more information please visit TV diversity bursaries page here.
For more information about the Television Skills Fund and development or training opportunities it supports, please email Sarah Joyce, TV associate, at: sarah.joyce@screenskills.com.