A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD
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A <strong>FUTURE</strong> <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>PUBLIC</strong> <strong>SERVICE</strong> <strong>TELEVISION</strong><br />
For example, the BBC’s plans for BBC Studios<br />
are likely to mean an increased reliance on<br />
a freelance workforce, and it is therefore<br />
vital that the BBC works in partnership with<br />
the rest of the industry on skills issues and<br />
consults with the industry on its plans in this<br />
regard. At present, the BBC’s approach to<br />
skills too often seems to exist in something<br />
of a vacuum. Given its pivotal role in the<br />
PSM landscape, the corporation needs to<br />
develop a much stronger commitment<br />
to collaboration in order to identify and<br />
address skills needs and gaps. The lack of<br />
discussion in relation to training in the recent<br />
white paper on the future of the BBC would<br />
suggest that the government too does not<br />
see this as a priority for the corporation (and<br />
the wider industry) despite the skills gaps<br />
that are starting to open up in areas like highend<br />
drama.<br />
One area in which the government has been<br />
active – although not specifically in relation<br />
to the screen industries – concerns the<br />
proposed introduction of an apprenticeship<br />
levy in April 2017 that poses some significant<br />
challenges (and potential opportunities)<br />
for the television workforce. The levy will<br />
be statutory across all companies with<br />
pay bills over £3 million a year and the<br />
government anticipates collecting £3 billion<br />
a year by 2020, with a total of three million<br />
apprenticeship starts by that date. According<br />
to Creative Skillset, the new apprenticeships<br />
“could – with industry backing – be a<br />
powerful driver for greater creative industry<br />
workforce diversity via paid, job-ready<br />
entrants.” 499<br />
Yet the screen industries have found it<br />
difficult to engage up to this point with<br />
apprenticeships, not least because of the<br />
freelance nature of the production sector.<br />
Despite the schemes that we have already<br />
referred to in this chapter, the number of<br />
apprentices remains low and the industry<br />
is not yet ready with the architecture<br />
needed to fully embrace opportunities<br />
for apprenticeships. The TV industry has<br />
many hundreds of niche and specialised<br />
occupations, many of them impacted by<br />
technological change and the requirement<br />
that an apprenticeship needs to last for 12<br />
months presents a challenge to industries<br />
that operate on very different and less<br />
predictable time frames. Significant energy<br />
and investment will be required to translate<br />
these roles into appropriate standards,<br />
especially as this process will need to involve<br />
many small and micro-enterprises. It is vital,<br />
therefore, to find a way to use levy proceeds<br />
to support standards development, certainly<br />
in the first year of the scheme.<br />
The government’s scheme also needs to be<br />
carefully aligned with the industry’s existing<br />
apprenticeship schemes as well as with<br />
existing voluntary levies as any reduction in<br />
investment in the latter would undermine the<br />
competitiveness of the screen sectors and<br />
restrict its ability to meet growing demand.<br />
These sectors cannot afford to lose their<br />
ability strategically to direct money to areas<br />
of identified need through, for example<br />
Creative Skillset and the Indie Training<br />
Fund. Furthermore, as Sky put it to us, more<br />
detail is needed about standards, costs and<br />
how best to ensure that the government’s<br />
scheme does not “unfairly disadvantage UK<br />
apprentices outside England”. 500 According<br />
499<br />
Creative Skillset, submission to the Inquiry.<br />
500<br />
Sky, briefing note to the Inquiry, June 16, 2016.<br />
148