Landmark BFI UK Skills Review Calls For $127M Investment & 21,000 Extra Crew By 2025; Urges 1% Of Production Budgets Used For Training

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An additional £104M ($127M) and 20,000 full-time jobs will need to be injected into the UK’s film and high-end TV (HETV) sectors over the next three years for the industry to keep up with demand for projects, according to the BFI.The body published its long-awaited skills review today, with the key recommendation being that at least 1% of all production budgets are invested in training in order to mitigate the growing skills crisis.The review, which has had buy-in from major stakeholders in the HETV and film sectors, said £104M will need to be spent and 20,770 more full-time posts created to meet demand by 2025, with production spend having rocketed over the past four years to £5.6BN ($6.8B).

A similar report last week from UK training body ScreenSkills, which predicted film and HETV could hit £7.7B ($9.4B) by 2025, forecast roughly the same number of jobs required but a colossal £300M ($368M) investment needed.Projects have been rushing back into production since the COVID-19-induced production hiatus and the UK industry is now virtually at full capacity, which is having knock-on effects on worker supply, diversity and wellbeing, according to the BFI review.If the issues aren’t addressed, the BFI raised concerns that the sector’s “quality of work” could be threatened, which would “potentially damage the UK’s reputation as home to one of the most highly skilled and sought after crews in the world.”The review noted skills shortages at all levels, which are especially threatening the UK’s indie film sector, placing pressure on already stretched budgets.The body is immediately beginning work on implementing other recommendations including mapping crew shortages in detail via a service that would capture and quantify