INDUSTRY. CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
ancillary to the training. It’s all about helping the individual. The pandemic was a setback, but the figures are positive now. Other experts have shared a promising future for the UK. No guarantees can be made, but do you still see screen as a promising career to commit to? In a word, yes. I would say now, more so than ever. We are in a very fortunate position to have a generous tax incentive, which enables the world to see the UK as an absolutely excellent place to make your production. We also have strong content from broadcasters like the BBC and ITV. They’re still our major supporters. Look at everything, from drama, factual and entertainment to daytime TV, and there is a whole value chain. The sheer number of jobs that creates is significant. When you double that up with the major streamers, who are committed to taking spaces in studios for ten years plus, it’s clear this isn’t all going away tomorrow. “Look at everything, from drama, factual and entertainment to daytime TV, and there is a whole value chain. The sheer number of jobs that creates is significant”
backgrounds. Currently, we’ve got 19 people on that programme who’ve been put forward with leadership potential. Inspirational figures make people think, ‘if you could do it, maybe I can, too’. Finally, ScreenSkills has a bursary fund, as well. It generally stays available all year round – any individual working in the industry can access it. It could be used for training, pieces of new kit and more. There’s a lot we can do that’s
Very shortly, we’ll be announcing the figures for the next year. Brand-new opportunities for training and a renewed focus on how we support sectors will be visible online by mid-June. There’s lots of niche activity. Can you share some detail on ScreenSkills’ opportunities beyond hands-on development? It’s important we all look at how to make sure the industry remains a nice place to be. People shouldn’t feel like career breaks – whether that’s for children or anything else – are the end of the road. We do a number of Return to Work programmes, to avoid losing talent. We need to make the industry robust, and looking at ways of retaining people is a means of doing that. We also deliver leadership and management training, which is becoming very popular. People have to understand the responsibility of supervising teams. Managers should create a positive work environment, be cognisant of their language and consider the way they’re interacting with teams. The training is free to all our contributing productions. We come to them, and it’s just half a day of development. Recently, we’ve been expanding a scheme called Leaders of Tomorrow, which looks to change the make-up of our direction in the future. The industry needs individuals from different
NEXT STEPS Christine Healy, chair of the High-end TV Skills Council, launches the Leaders of Tomorrow initiative
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