Cap on contributions to ScreenSkills Skills Funds to rise

The cap on industry contributions to the Film and High-end TV Skills Funds will increase to £61,000 with effect from the new financial year. At the same time, the maximum contribution to both the Animation and the Children’s TV Skills Fund will be raised to £44,500.

The changes are in line with the current RPI (retail price index) and the new cap for both the Film and High-end TV Skills Funds also includes an additional increase of £2,000 as agreed with their respective skills council of key industry figures.

Productions are encouraged to pay 0.5% of their production budget spent in the UK – limited by the contribution cap – into the Skills Fund relevant to them. In doing this, they are supporting and investing in the quality of the screen industry workforce in the UK.

The Skills Funds invests all contributions in training courses that enable professionals at all career stages advance, regardless of where they are based in the UK:

• the High-end TV Skills Fund has invested more than £18 million of contributions from 650 productions in crew and talent development since its creation in 2013.
• the Film Skills Fund has invested more than £15 million in skills and training for UK film production, distribution and exhibition since the fund was established in 1999.
• the Children’s TV Skills Fund has collected and invested more than £500,000 in skills activity for professionals working in the children’s TV industry
• the Animation Skills Fund has raised and invested more than £615,000 in the skills development of the industry since its establishment in 2013.

Support includes a host of programmes targeted at shortage grades, as well as Make a Move, Trainee Finder and bursaries.