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 high-end television.
Training for the UK high-end TV industry is supported by the ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills Fund (with contributions from productions companies, broadcasters and SVoDs in the UK). Investment addresses the skills and development needs of tackling skill gaps and shortages, and ensuring the robust growth of the sector is secured with a fully skilled and inclusive workforce. All priorities are endorsed by the industry-led High-end TV Skills Fund.
The High-end TV Skills Fund is looking for an organisation or individual/s who can design and run an introduction to British Sign Language training for HETV freelancers.
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 in HETV. The applicant must be a qualified teacher in British Sign Language and have a certificate to teach.
The successful applicant will need to demonstrate their understanding of HETV, 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.
We particularly welcome applications from those based in the UK nations and regions, including partnerships between organisations and/or individuals with expertise in HETV and BSL.
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, see this guide
- 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.
Key requirements
The applicant must design, manage, market, recruit and deliver.
The outcomes from the training for participants should include:
- a course designed to train a minimum of 20 and maximum of 50 high-end television (HETV) freelancers in Level 1 British Sign Language (BSL).
- delivered online during evenings and weekends to accommodate working industry professionals.
- the course will include industry-specific vocabulary and phrases relevant to working on HETV productions.
- case studies will be used to highlight best practices for working with deaf crew members and the use of BSL on set.
- the course will be marketed through UK broadcasters and streamers to support targeted recruitment.
- a detailed application process will be hosted on the ScreenSkills website to ensure applicants meet the eligibility criteria.
We encourage training providers to review the skills checklists here to aid in ensuring the potential training covers the common skills gaps identified that individuals need to fill to attain such a role.
Participant aims
The training should be for a minimum of 20 and maximum of 50 participants based across the UK and should target:
- 50 freelancers working in HETV in any department
The following are the minimum diversity aims for this programme:
- At least 50 – 60% of beneficiaries based outside London (nations and regions aim)
- 10 - 30% minority ethnic (ethnicity aim)
- 45 - 55% women (gender aim)
- 12 - 20% disabled (disability aim)
- 25 – 40% lower social economic background (social inclusion aim)
ScreenSkills aims to go beyond legal diversity requirements and considers additional measures of inclusivity, including:
- Caring responsibilities
- Whether a person is returning to work following leave
- Sexual orientation and gender identity: lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
- Age & religion
Providing access to diverse crew and talent is key to our delivery objectives. All trainers and companies delivering programmes that are funded by the Skills Funds 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. If diversity targets are not met, the project could be at risk of losing funding.
We require all Skills Fund-funded programme participants to set up a ScreenSkills profile via our website which allows us to gather data and track beneficiaries.
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 emily.gunn @screenskills.com who will be happy to help.
How much can you apply for?
We are looking for bids of up to £20,000
All our funds are treated as grants and therefore are not applicable for VAT.
Deadlines
All expressions of interest should be sent via the 'register interest' button by Friday 25 July 2025.
If you are successful in being shortlisted, you will be required to submit an online application form and a budget. The deadline for full applications is 15 August 2025 and applicants will be notified of a decision by 29 August.
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.
If you intend to include a charge to the delegates for the training, we will also expect your budget to include a reasonable bursary allocation (in line with the social inclusion target) to ensure no potential applicants are deterred.
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 emily.gunn@screenskills.com