New strands for unscripted short courses

The new Unscripted TV Skills Fund is to make it easier for freelancers and production staff to embed training into their working lives by introducing a returning programme of short courses grouped in three strands:

• Step Up offers training to help individuals move on to a new role or improve skills in their current role, providing support to develop their unscripted TV career
• Your Life at Work offers training aimed at sharing workplace best practice as well as how to stay healthy, happy and productive at work
• Mind Your Business offers training in a range of areas related to finance, HR, business affairs and around industry-identified skills-shortage areas, giving individuals the tools needed to thrive in their chosen field in unscripted TV.

The courses in each strand will run at regular intervals over the year so that everyone can forward-plan around their work and life commitments and not miss out.

ScreenSkills’ popular short course programme was originally launched at the start of the first lockdown in a bid to give practitioners opportunities to upskill in support of their personal and career development as well as helping individuals stay connected at such a challenging time.

The new schedule represents the Unscripted TV Skills Fund’s commitment to continuing to offer free and accessible training to those making unscripted TV across the UK. It reflects the need for adaptability and flexibility in response to the scheduling of training for an increasingly busy TV sector.

Sarah Joyce, ScreenSkills’ head of unscripted and children’s TV, said: “We know the industry is keen to take up opportunities to refresh training, learn new skills and improve existing ones, but that sometimes the challenge is in finding the time. We hope that having a predictable, returning programme of online training will make it easier for people to build these opportunities into their working lives.”

All short courses will be listed in the ScreenSkills training and opportunities directory. Courses scheduled to run under each strand between October and December 2021 are as follows:

Step Up:

• 1-to-1 spotcoaching
• Building and communicating your brand with confidence
• Networking skills for freelancers
• Stepping into management 101
• Career mapping

Your Life at Work:

• Disability awareness for hirers
• Equality and inclusion essentials
• Mental health awareness for HoDs
• Resilience training
• Understanding and managing stress
• Mastering feedback
• Developing the art of successful negotiation
• Impostor syndrome: why do I feel like a fraud?

Mind Your Business:

• Generating ground-breaking ideas
• Navigating the rights minefield: business affairs and copyright
• Good hiring practices
• Understanding budgets for editorial teams in unscripted TV
• Introduction to compliance
• Introduction to distribution
• Managing excel cost managers
• Creating a budget & schedule for unscripted TV