SCREENSKILLS UNSCRIPTED TV SKILLS FUND
The School That Tried To End Racism, Photograph: Mark Johnson/Channel 4
Addressing the skills deficit in factual television
How industry has joined forces to turbo-charge investment in training the people who make some of the UK’s best-loved shows
It took more than three years of negotiations. But it is a sign of how seriously broadcasters, streamers and indies are taking skills shortages that the new ScreenSkills Unscripted TV Skills Fund launched this year - despite the additional challenges of Covid.
Designed to transform investment in skills and training for unscripted television, the partners for launch were Pact, BBC, Channel 4, Sky, A+E Networks UK and Discovery UK with Channel 5 and Netflix now also on board and discussions continuing with others.
BBC and Channel 4 are founding investors, providing critical start-up funds to ensure a continuity of provision once the old TV Skills Fund – which relied on broadcaster contributions alone – and the former Indie Training Fund closed.
“It’s really great to see everyone
difference in unscripted.”
Jane Muirhead Raise the Roof
But the hope is that annual investment will go from around £370,000 to £3 million within the next few years, enabling training for more of the workforce and, crucially, with a major focus on television out of London. Indies should benefit from a bigger
ScreenSkills.com
pool of inclusive local talent and crew in shortage areas across the UK. Freelancers are continuing to be supported with the free slate of short courses originally launched during first lockdown and addressing areas of industry concern such as mental health and leadership and management.
working together to make a
Sarah Joyce, ScreenSkills’ Head of Unscripted TV, says: “Across other parts of the industry, tax credits meant people accepted a responsibility towards contributing to training so it is gratifying that – even without tax relief – indies, broadcasters and SVoDs want to work with us in an efficient and effective way to tackle skills issues across unscripted television.
“There has been great commitment since the fund went live in the summer and we should really be able to see the impact as we head through 2022 and beyond. Though there is still some way to go until we are able
to do everything that the sector needs, we should, in time, be able to reverse the way unscripted had fallen behind areas such as high-end television in ensuring we have enough people with the right skills.”
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