ScreenSkills invites training providers or industry professionals to tender for new training designed to address skills shortages and gaps and to help build a more inclusive workforce in UK film.
Continuing professional development for the UK film industry is supported by the ScreenSkills Film Skills Fund (FSF) with contributions from film productions in the UK.
Investment addresses the skills and development needs of the UK film industry, tackling skill gaps and shortages, and ensuring the robust growth of the sector is secured with a fully skilled and inclusive workforce.
The Film Skills Fund is looking for an organisation or individual/s who can design and run a training programme for ‘First time scripted feature producers’ for no less than 12 people/professionals.
Who can apply?
ScreenSkills welcomes applications from individuals, partnerships or organisations that have a proven track record of delivering successful industry-standard training projects. We particularly welcome applications from providers based in the UK nations and regions, including partnerships between organisations and/or in partnership with freelancers who have worked as scripted feature film producers.
The successful applicant will need to demonstrate their understanding of theatrical release film training requirements, including the diversity challenges facing the industry and must clearly demonstrate that they have the resources to track the career progression of participants beyond the life of the programme.
If applicants are already delivering similar training and can expand their offer to include the scope outlined below, they are also welcomed to apply.
Applicants must:
- demonstrate evidence of appropriate, recent engagement with the industry in the design and delivery of the programme
- meet critical diversity targets as outlined in this tender, including:
- making reasonable adjustments to the training (whether face-to-face, content or online and including during the application process) to make it accessible to a diverse audience – we will ask for evidence of your approach and implementation
- having an equality policy in place as an employer
- having a monitoring system in place to track the diversity of the delegates
- providing diversity and inclusivity training to facilitators – (see free ACAS online training).
- gather long-term destination data from the delegates to prove impact of training utilising the ScreenSkills monitoring questionnaire
- develop a clear structure for the training, ensuring that it is outcome focused.
- discuss and agree with those taking part in the programme that they will provide feedback on the training if requested which could include a quote on their experience of the training and contact details
Key requirements
The applicant must design, manage, market, recruit and deliver a training programme for no less than 12 participants.
ScreenSkills acknowledges the need to support emerging filmmakers with bespoke training for producing scripted feature films. This bespoke training should be for producers aiming to cover creative and commercial aspects of filmmaking and production, to bridge the gap between development and distribution. The programme could include face to face or/and online training days for small groups. The training should include proven theory-based workshops that target different groups e.g. finance for producers.
Participant aims
The training should be for a minimum of 12 participants based across the UK and should target those at an early-level career stage (not open to new entrants) and working on their first scripted feature film or have just made/released their debut, which can be of any genre.
Training should not be scheduled to commence before the beginning of November 2025 (see application deadlines below).
The following are the minimum diversity targets for this programme:
- 50-60% of beneficiaries based outside London
- 15-25% from a minority ethnic group (ethnicity aim)
- 45-55% women (gender aim)
- 12-20% disability (disability aim)
- 25-40% social inclusion (based on parental occupation)
ScreenSkills aims to go beyond legal diversity requirements and considers additional measures of inclusivity, including:
- employment status
- whether a person is returning to work following leave
- geographical location (including representation of nations and regions)
Providing access to diverse crew and talent is key to our delivery objectives. All trainers and companies delivering programmes that are funded by the Film Skills Fund must meet the identified diversity requirements. If they fail to do so, they must show robust evidence of why a target has not been met.
We require all Skills Fund-funded programme participants to set up a ScreenSkills profile via our website and to provide diversity data at this point. Participants must complete their profile and diversity data before the training begins.
How to apply
At this stage we are requesting an expression of interest. Please complete this brief document outlining the key aspects of the proposed programme, how the key requirements of the training sessions will be met, information about the company and the provider’s capacity to deliver training.
If you have access requirements and would like an alternative way to submit your application or would like any support in completing the expression of interest form, please email katie.cummings@screenskills.com and we will be happy to help.
How much can you apply for?
We are looking for bids of up to £25,000.
All our funds are treated as grants and therefore are not applicable for VAT.
Training providers may not charge delegates a fee for this training programme.
Deadlines
All expressions of interest should be sent via the register interest button to filmcpdteam@screenskills.com by 27 July 2025, 23:59.
Applicants will be notified if they are shortlisted or not by 1 August 2025. Successful applicants will then be required to submit an online application form and a budget. The deadline for full applications will be 21 September 2025, 23:59.
Other useful information
If you progress to full application, we will expect you to detail your plans for ensuring the programme and application process are accessible including, but not limited to, alternative application formats, marketing and the delivery of training.
As part of accessibility, we expect your budget to include a reasonable bursary allocation for delegates who risk being excluded due to costs including, but not limited to, travel and caring responsibilities.
Please ensure that, where applicable, costs are shown in your budget inclusive of VAT. This also applies to any delegates fees you may charge.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of this tender, or your proposal, before submitting your Expression of Interest, please contact us at filmcpdteam@screenskills.com.