Campaign Launches To Recruit New Talent Into UK Film

A nationwide campaign to recruit new and diverse talent into UK film and television is set to launch this week in response to the growth and increasing demand from one of the country’s most vibrant industries.

ScreenSkills, the skills body for UK screen supported by industry and the BFI with National Lottery funds, will run the campaign in cinemas, social media and online. It responds to skills gaps and diversity data identified by new research revealed today (TUESDAY) and a commitment from the screen industries to build a more inclusive workforce.

Find Your Future in Film and TV will feature the stories of seven talents in different parts of the industry, showing the wide range of jobs available behind the camera – from assistant directing and hair and make-up to lighting, locations and exhibition.

Developed to show the general public the possibilities for employment in the UK’s booming screen industries, it will signpost information about the routes in, including for those with in-demand skills from other industries. The longer-term ambition is to grow the workforce in the UK.

For more information on Find Your Future in Film and TV, including quotes from the seven featured talents, read the separate release here and find some images here.

The campaign is part of a strategy aimed at creating and promoting clearer pathways into the screen industries and professionalising the skills and training of the existing workforce. It is underpinned by the Skills Forecasting Service which has been set up to bolster anecdotal evidence of skills needs with a robust evidential base to make targeted interventions where there is most need.

The Annual ScreenSkills Assessment is a comprehensive analysis of existing data combined with a specially commissioned survey of more than 400 employers on the state of the screen sector workforce. Brought together into one study for the first time, headline statistics unveiled today show the screen industry sectors (television, film, VFX, animation and games) have:

• a higher proportion of male workers (62%) than the working population of the UK economy as a whole (53%)

• a lower proportion of workers aged 50+ (20%) compared to the UK economy (31%)

• a higher proportion of workers aged below 40 (57%) compared to the UK economy (46%)

• a higher proportion of workers with a white ethnic background (90%) than the UK economy (88%)

• fewer people with disabilities (10%) than the UK economy (14%)

• comparatively more workers from overseas (6%) compared to the overall UK economy (4%), though slightly fewer workers from the other 27 countries in the European Union (6%) than the UK economy (7%). The percentage of EU workers in sectors such as VFX and animation is much higher, according to evidence from the UK Screen Alliance which represents them.

The campaign and the new research are supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funds as part of its Future Film Skills strategy. The research was developed in partnership with the Work Foundation.

Seetha Kumar, ScreenSkills Chief Executive, said: "The findings we are publishing today are important in helping us to better understand our fast-moving industries and to help us invest sensibly in skills and training to tackle the challenges created by the current production boom.

"The UK's film and television industry is world-famous and we are launching our Find Your Future in Film and TV campaign to keep it that way. We want to attract new and diverse talent to take on the wide range of jobs available behind-the-camera and help maintain the current success.

"We all know that more needs to be done to make sure that UK screen has an inclusive workforce to help it tell a greater diversity of stories."