Memorandum submitted by Skillset
INTRODUCTION
Skillset exists:
"to encourage the delivery of informed
training and vocational education provision so that the UK's audio
visual industries,[18]
maintain and enhance their creativity, productivity and competitiveness".
Skillset is one of a growing network of Sector
Skills Councils, led by industry and licensed by and working in
partnership with Government and its public agencies across the
UK, charged with addressing the following four goals:
— Reducing skills gaps and shortages;
— Improving productivity and business
performance;
— Increasing the opportunities to boost
the skills and productivity of everyone in the sector's workforce,
including action on equal opportunities;
— Improving learning supply including
apprenticeships, higher education and national occupational standards.
It was one of five "trailblazer" SSCs,
has recently been awarded a five year licence and has been selected
as one of four "pathfinders" SSCs charged with developing
Sector Skills Agreements in England, Scotland and Wales.
Skillset's Chair is Clive Jones, CEO of ITV
News and our Deputy Chair is Stewart Till CBE, Chair and CEO of
UIP and Deputy Chair of the UK Film Council. Our industry led
and managed Board includes senior representatives from:
Federation of Entertainment Unions
Motion Pictures Association
and the Photo-imaging industry with whom we have
recently merged.
The BBC was one of Skillset's founding members
and has always maintained an active support and commitment to
Skillset.
In addition to the Board, Skillset has established
a network of cross industry panels in each nation and region of
the UK and sector specific committees which guide our more detailed
work in each area.
This submission seeks to comment only on those
issues which relate to the skills agenda, represents the consensus
view of the industry as expressed through its Sector Skills Council
and makes an assumption that the BBC will continue with its current
status and funding arrangements. The various constituent parties
to Skillset will be addressing the many other serious and important
questions that Charter Review poses in their individual submissions.
CONTEXT
Our submission is made against and informed
by the dynamic context within which we work. In particular four
current key strategic developments require some description, before
moving onto our specific comments on the BBC in this process of
Charter Review:
National Skills Strategy (England) White Paper
July 2003 DfES / DTI / DWP / Treasury / Sponsoring Department
eg DCMS
Training and education are devolved powers and the
specific policies and public agencies that support the activities
differ. However, there is common thinking and close liaison. The
latest articulation is the publication of the National Skills
Strategy for England which has been developed in close consultation
with the devolved administrations and is consistent with the direction
of their policies.
Overall economic analysis identifies that UK
productivity lags significantly behind our international competitors.
Government across the UK is clear in its view that one of the
key reasons for this is the lack of focus and emphasis that both
the public and private sectors have placed on skills, the lack
of industry collaboration that has taken place to address these
issues and the short termism of the responses that are made.
As the White Paper States:
"no business operates in isolation. In
a highly interconnected and interdependent world the Government
also has a role to promote long term, as well as short term gains
from skills."
Sector Skills Councils have been given a central
role in driving change and the key mechanism for identifying and
articulating how industries are going to raise their performance
will be through the development of Sector Skills Agreements. Skillset
is currently charged with developing one of the first of these
agreements for our sector in England, Scotland and Wales. The
Agreement is expected to describe a longer term agenda (5-10 years)
for raising productivity in each sector, the skills needed for
international competitiveness and how industry is going to work
collaboratively to invest in these skills. The Secretaries of
State for both DfES and the DTI and the Lifelong Learning Ministers
in Wales and Scotland are taking a close interest in the development
of the Pathfinder Agreements and will be meeting with us over
the period of its development. Formal sign off is timetabled for
December 2004.
In return for employer collaborative action,
Government has promised influence over publicly funded support
for training and education in order to promote successful partnership
and implementation of the Agreements.
SKILLSET/OFCOM
TASK FORCE
AND DEVELOPMENTS
"The Government would like to make it
clear that the obligations placed in the Bill represent a serious
and ongoing obligation to invest in training. We see these requirements
as vital to the future success of the sector. Unless we invest
in people and their skills our vibrant audio visual media will
eventually go the way of shipbuilding and many other traditional
manufacturing industries. On the recommendation of the ITC's programme
supply review, the Secretary of State asked Skillset to set up
a task force to report back to Ofcom on training. We keenly await
the recommendations of the task force and expect a robust and
vigorous strategy for the industry to emerge as a result."
(Lord McIntosh of Haringey, Minister for Media
and Heritage, 8th July 2003, House of Lords debate on the Communications
Bill)
The Skillset/Ofcom Task Force, made up of representatives
from across the industry, submitted its report and recommendations
to Ofcom in November 2003. At the beginning of the process, in
March 2003, Kim Howells, the then Minister for Culture, Media
and Sport wrote to Skillset asking that the Task Force make clear
in its recommendations its views on the position of the BBC in
relation to training, as articulated in the draft BBC agreement.
The Task Force, including the BBC, who played
a full and active role in its deliberations was:
"unanimous in its recommendations that
the BBC should be expected to report to Ofcom on these matters
as a Tier One responsibility. As the biggest single employer it
is essential that they inform and adhere to the practices and
processes which the Task Force is recommending . . . ."
The Task Force Report analysed the current organisation
of training and investment in the broadcast industry and concluded
that although many companies take their obligations seriously,
current regulation and investment is piecemeal with no common
systems of audit and assessment. It drew attention to a particular
weakness in television where the growth of both the independent
and freelance sectors require a commitment to industry wide initiatives
and organisations which address the development of skills for
those we do not benefit from in-house training schemes.
Its view was that the nature of the current
iniatives set up to address this issue:
"has produced patchy response with little
correlation between contributions made and dependence on freelance
talent. While the freelance sector has increased over recent years,
the funds have actually decreased and are woefully inadequate
to meet the needs of an increasingly casualised workforce."
In addition it noted that in television and
radio there are a wide variety of other areas where industry wide
iniatives need to be focussed, such as careers advice and guidance,
creating links with FE and HE provision and targeting training
courses to further new talent from under represented groups in
the industry. While there are examples of some companies contributing
to such schemes there is no systematic way of identifying, assessing,
investing in and coordinating them such that the effort and commitment
made becomes greater than the sum of the parts.
The Ofcom Board welcomed the Task Force's report
and the objectives underlying its recommendations. Ofcom and the
industry, including the BBC, have now agreed that they wish to
move forward to discuss the establishment of a co-regulatory relationship
with the industry through Skillset. An independently chaired design
group has been established to recommend a system for effective
co-regulation which is fit for purpose and able to facilitate
achievement of the following objectives:
— Strengthening training provision
as appropriate;
— Ensuring training provision is more
forward looking and more closely allied to the business needs
of the industry than at present;
— Developing common reporting and measurement
systems across industry.
All of the above will be informed by the work
of Skillset's TV Skills Strategy Committee, who will work with
and through Skillset to provide an ongoing accurate industry wide
assessment of skills, gaps, shortages and priorities and a costed
action plan to meet them. The intention is that a similar committee
is established for radio.
The Co-Regulatory Design Group will receive
recommendations from a Finance Group which has been established
to look at mechanisms for coordinating and improving investment
in skills/talent development across broadcast.
The group will produce a written report for
Ofcom by the end of June 2004 with a timetable on consulting on
and implementing its proposals with a view to the new co-regulatory
system being in place by the end of 2004.
A BIGGER FUTURE—THE
UK FILM SKILLS
STRATEGY, SKILLSET/UK
FILM COUNCIL
2003
Launched by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of
State for Education and Skills, A Bigger Future is a complete
training and education strategy for British film born out of over
12 months of research, consultation and deliberations involving
the full UK industry. The key objective is to ensure that the
UK industry is able to compete in the European and global marketplace
on the basis of world-beating skills. A detailed five-year strategy
supported by £50 million of investment has been developed
and is being implemented and managed by Skillset with the guidance
of a new Film Skills Strategy Committee, made up of representatives
from the UK Film Council, Skillset and the industry. The strategy
is being financed through the establishment of a new Film Skills
Fund which comprises:
— contributions from producers in recognition
of meeting the training needs of the freelance workforce—the
current voluntary Skills Investment Fund which, following consultation
with the industry, may become mandatory;
— contributions from industry for specific
projects;
— Lottery funding from the UK Film
Council;
— partnership investment from training
and education providers;
— employers contributing to their own
company-specific initiatives.
In areas of mutual concern and benefit (of particular
relevance for terrestrial and non-terrestrial television) Skillset
provides a mechanism where policy, strategy and investment from
both film and television can be discussed and in some cases, mutual
investments made.
SKILLSET AND
DTI SKILLS COMMITTEE
This group has only just been established. Its
objective is to guide the development of a comprehensive interactive
media skills strategy for the UK industry. It will be producing
a first stage report in June 2004 and its analysis will form a
central plank of Skillset's Pathfinder Sector Skills Agreement.
The BBC has a senior representative on this group.
THE BBC
People are the principle asset of our creative,
high skills, high knowledge industry. Investing in and developing
their skills and talent is an investment which reaps both commercial
and creative reward for individuals, individual companies and
the overall competitiveness and productivity of the sector.
The BBC is the single biggest employer of staff
and freelancers in the industry. The critical creative mass which
it represents combined with its Pubic Service remit and its unique
funding formula means that it is well placed to and should have
a responsibility to invest in the development of its own and the
industry's people.
The BBC has a well deserved reputation for investing
in the development of its people with high quality skills and
talent training and support. It currently reports to Governors
on its training spend and activity and in addition produces an
annual review of training activity within the organisation and
its contribution to the wider industry.
As the Skillset Ofcom Task Force Report identified,
there is no industry wide agreed methodology for measuring investment
and activity which makes any analysis of the BBC's commitment
more difficult. The BBC reported to the Skillset Ofcom Task Force
that in 2002 the total BBC spend was £53.5 million—1.58%
of its revenue and 5.98% of its payroll. This does not include
the significant investment it makes in on the job development.
However, these figures conflate investment in staff, directly
employed freelancers and contributions to industry wide initiatives.
Appendix A of the Charter Review Consultation
Document provided by the BBC highlights training and states:
"the BBC will continue its substantial
investment, around £40 million a year, in ensuring that all
staff have the opportunity to develop their skills and to learn
new ones. We will also continue to make a significant contribution
to industry wide initiatives, as well as running schemes designed
to attract new people to the broadcasting industry such as BBC
Talent, which now offers four schemes across the UK"
Whilst there is no question that the BBC invests
in its staff in a systematic and thorough going way, Skillset
questions the level and basis on which decisions around both investment
in freelancers and other industry wide initiatives are made. We
welcome the BBC's active support and commitment to the development
of Skillset's Pathfinder Sector Skills Agreement and its constituent
strategies, both sectorally, and nationally and regionally. Its
commitment to becoming part of new regulatory relationship with
Ofcom and the industry is very welcome. These activities will
allow for a proper assessment of industry wide priorities and
the BBC's active involvement in the development of appropriate
partnership action and investment with the rest of the industry
across the UK.
Skillset would strongly recommend that the BBC
significantly increases its investment in freelancers and support
for industry-wide collaboration within the new frameworks described
above. The fast pace of technological change within the industry
as a whole is a significant challenge and one which the BBC has
been at the forefront. In order to stay ahead of the international
competition and maximise the benefits that these new technologies
bring will require substantial BBC and industry-wide investment,
not just in the technology but on the skills needed to exploit
it. As the industry fragments and becomes ever more competitive
its unique position (assuming that it is maintained) becomes ever
more privileged. A balance has to be struck between its investment
in its own skills and talent as one of its USPs and its Public
Service Broadcasting remit. However, a legitimate question can
be asked as to whether the investment made, for example, in the
purchase of Harry Potter and in some of its other more commercially
competitive programming would be better deployed in working with
the rest of the industry to effectively invest in the diverse
skills and talent that are needed to support the growth and competitiveness
of the sector. The Skillset Ofcom Task Force specifically reflected
on this. It noted that one of the stated goals of the licence
fee is to fund:
"training and support for British production
skills and talent in music, drama, film, radio and TV"
and recommended that any industry response to meeting
the challenge of improved industry wide collaboration and investment
in freelancers would require in future:
"investment . . . at a higher level for
the BBC to reflect the organisation's Public Service remit and
funding. The BBC's circumstances are unique in that all its domestic
broadcast services are funded by the licence fee. It is therefore
accountable to its audience, the industry and wider public need
rather than to its shareholders and is exempt from the commercial
imperative of attracting advertising revenue to exist".
Both in relation to the industry and in relation
to playing its part in raising the skills game the BBC should
be the flagship employer. It should act as a beacon demonstrating
through its practice its commitment to Public Service both within
the industry and in providing an example of excellence in supporting
the delivery of the Government's skill strategies across the UK.
In respect of its patronage of the arts, within
which film is included, Skillset wishes to see the BBC fully supporting
the implementation of the UK Film Skills Strategy. Whilst it is
positive that BBC Films is now playing its part in supporting
the voluntary levy in the feature film industry (the Skills Investment
Fund), it was nevertheless disappointing that it has taken three
years before it felt able to do so. However, the development of
the UK Film Skills Strategy has provided a vision, clarity and
unifying purpose and the BBC's new commitment to the SIF and its
support for the levy to become mandatory is welcome. We look forward
to developing ever closer partnership involvement from the BBC
as the strategy is delivered over the coming months and years.
In respect of Interactive Media, as was noted
above, until the DTI—Skillset Interactive Committee delivers
its strategy it is too early to identify practical ways in which
the BBC can support its delivery but its involvement on the Committee
at senior level is welcomed.
In respect of its commitment to supporting the
development of skills and talent in Scotland, Wales, Northern
Ireland and the English Regions the BBC is involved in all of
Skillset's Industry Skills Panels some of which are shared with
the National and Regional Screen Agencies. In some areas the BBC
representation and involvement is extremely active and committed
and in others less so. Skillset would welcome a consistent approach
to support throughout the UK. In addition Skillset is unaware
of how the BBC's investment in skills and talent development breaks
down on a national / regional basis. However, the development
of this analysis should flow from the outcome of the Ofcom discussions
and co-regulatory systems.
There is an absolute and proven link to be made
between investing in the development of skills and talent which
properly reflects the make up of our diverse society and improving
the diversity of the sectors workforce. The BBC has pioneered
innovative work and well regarded schemes that address this issue
and again, should be encouraged to further invest both for its
own benefit and for the industry as a whole. It should also continue
to strengthen and deepen its support for working with the Women
in Film and Television Network, the Cultural Diversity Network
and the Broadcasters Disability Network as well as Skillset in
order to ensure that its contribution "joins up" effectively
with other activity across the industry.
Finally, the potential for the BBC to support
the learning and development of both people interested in and
already working in our industry, through the production of educational
and specialist content on all its platforms, is a resource which
Skillset believes could be deployed in a more strategic way. BBC
Training and Development are trailblazing the way by working with
Skillset to establish a joint portal where freelancers, colleges
etc can be accessed to the fantastic on-line learning facility
that has been developed by the BBC. To develop a "cradle
to grave" approach to supporting the development of media
literacy in the wider population and to providing supporting programming
for more vocationally orientated courses in schools, colleges,
universities and industry is an exciting and significant proposition.
The development of such a comprehensive strategy could provide
real added value to the BBC and the community it serves as well
as to the wider industry and is one which Skillset recommends
is more fully explored.
CONCLUSION
Skillset enjoys and is appreciative of the considerable
support and commitment from the BBC. We would look for this to
strengthen and grow as the need for greater industry wide collaboration
on the skills agenda becomes even clearer.
13 May 2004
18 Audio visual = broadcast, film, video, interactive
media and photo imaging. Back
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