The benefits to universities and colleges of being endorsed

ScreenSkills Select signposts prospective students (and their guardians and teachers) to the courses that will provide industry-relevant skills, have strong links with industry professionals and will give them a career advantage. 

The benefits to universities and colleges of being endorsed
Image: NFTS

The benefits of being a ScreenSkills Select endorsed course include:

  • Supporting student recruitment: Being endorsed helps colleges and universities attract the talented students they need by demonstrating the quality and value of their courses and, the positive job prospects they give your students.
  • Increasing support from employers: Being endorsed assures prospective employers that students have the levels of knowledge and skill they want in new employees. Courses also become recognised by local and national employers for producing industry-ready graduates and learners. For employers, ScreenSkills Select indicates where to focus their recruitment and engagement by identifying the courses with a strong industry-facing ethos.
  • Improving the quality of courses: Being endorsed enhances the quality of courses via the rigorous application process, and, through annual monitoring. Each course is reviewed and discussed annually with one of our pool of industry evaluators.
  • Bringing education and industry together: Being endorsed gives colleges and universities greater scope to build connections, share ideas and create first-rate networking opportunities with industry and fellow educators. 
  • Helping courses to stand out from the crowd: With so many college and university courses for students to choose from, being endorsed provides a competitive advantage over rival courses who are not endorsed.

In a crowded field of education opportunities, and given the costs, it’s important that prospective students can understand which course provides the best employment opportunities after course completion. The fact that the endorsement process is ongoing, and that courses are re-evaluated, ensures that college/university courses keep pace with a rapidly evolving industry.

Ben Cowell-Thomas, Environment Supervisor at VFX and animation studios DNEG, and, ScreenSkills Select industry evaluator

Being Select endorsed also means educators and students have access to a range of exclusive benefits.

Training and insights

  • Online industry insight sessions for lecturers, course leaders and students to gain deeper insight into a variety of in-demand screen industry job roles, and practical advice on pathways into these professions.
  • Recorded online employability training events to help students in their final year of study build their professional profile, network with industry professionals, approach job applications, prepare for interviews and understand freelancing working.
  • Provision of best practice guidance around innovative course delivery such as the work-ready skills and experiences (WRYSE) initiative and our hybrid work experience guidelines
  • Access to our central ScreenSkills channels and within university and educator networks
  • Access to our new entrant and onboarding e-learning for students and educators alongside further e-learning modules which are in development with regard to supporting evidence work-ready skills defined through WRYSE guidelines.
  • E-learning management tools to course leaders to track completion of e-learning, help feed into skills passport, and manage the views of course alumni. These are in development.
  • ScreenSkills research events to find out about the latest skills gaps, shortages and industry trends.
  • An annual review with an industry evaluator to discuss ongoing course developments and share sector practice.
  • Access to our world-class pool of industry evaluators.

Helping to support course promotion

  • Endorsed courses are listed in the ScreenSkills Select course directory, linking directly to college or university course pages, in order to better signpost prospective students to endorsed courses.
  • The opportunity to use photography from courses on our website and ScreenSkills Select materials.
  • Successful courses receive a ScreenSkills Select Certificate of Endorsement and a supportive quote from one of our industry evaluators.
  • ScreenSkills Select endorsement is featured on the Discover Uni website(the official website for comparing UK Higher Education course data) under each course’s Professional accreditation section.

To find out more information about ScreenSkills Select, please contact the ScreenSkills Select team.

We are very proud of our ScreenSkills Select endorsement. It gives a clear signal to applicants and students that our television production degree courses at Southampton Solent University are industry-focused, embedded with real world learning, and that our graduates are ready for work.

Kieron Butler, Course Leader BA (Hons) Television Production BA (Hons) Television Studio Production, BA (Hons) Post-Production for Film & TV Southampton Solent University

ScreenSkills Select has been supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funds as part of its Future Film Skills strategy.