BFI pledges £11.85 million to support screen production workforce development and training across the UK

The BFI announces £11.85m funding over three years to support skills development and training across the UK’s key production hubs. With the UK continuing to attract significant levels of Film and High-End TV production spend – reaching £6.8 billion in 2025 – building and maintaining skilled and representative local crew bases across the country remains vital. This BFI National Lottery funding supports organisations working within the UK’s major production hubs to take the lead on developing and delivering below-the-line skills and training for their areas.  

Informed initially by the 2022 BFI Skills Review and developed in response to below-the-line production skills gaps and shortages across the UK screen sector, the BFI Skills Clusters Fund will continue to enable lead organisations to work collaboratively with local industry, education, and training providers. Taking a localised approach, the Fund will continue to support seven regional clusters to identify local skills needs, strengthen regional skills data and evidence, deliver tailored training to new and existing workers, and create clearer routes into local work opportunities in film and television production. The funding directly addresses the BFI National Lottery Strategy core objective to support a workforce that is both skilled and representative of the UK population. 

For each Cluster, funding is awarded to a lead delivery partner who will work in partnership with other organisations and leverage additional local funding to maximise the impact of BFI National Lottery funding. To date, seven BFI Skills Clusters have been awarded a total of £9m over three years covering the following areas:  

BFI Skills Cluster Berkshire (Screen Berkshire): £0.6m  

Lead delivery partner: Resource Productions 
Key partners include: University of Reading, Shadowbox Studios Shinfield, Berkshire Film Office, Amazon MGM Studios 

BFI Skills Cluster Metro London: £2.2m  

Lead delivery partner: Film London
Key partners include: NFTS, London Higher, New City College 

BFI Skills Cluster North of England (Screen Alliance North): £2.3m  

Lead delivery partner: Screen Yorkshire
Key partners include: Liverpool Film Office, North East Screen, Screen Manchester  

BFI Skills Cluster Northern Ireland: £0.9m  

Lead delivery partner: Northern Ireland Screen
Key partners include: Studio Ulster, QUB MediaLab 

BFI Skills Cluster Scotland: £1.1m  

Lead delivery partner: Screen Scotland
Key partners include: BECTU Vision, MG ALBA, Final Pixel Academy 
Also co-funded by the Scottish Government 

BFI Skills Cluster Wales (Siop Un Stop-One Stop Shop): £0.9m  

Lead delivery partner: Sgil Cymru
Key partners include: Screen Alliance Wales 
Also co-funded by Creative Wales and BBC Studios 

BFI Skills Cluster West Midlands (Create Central Skills Accelerator): £1m    

Lead delivery partner: Create Central
Key partners include: WMCA, WMGC, Production Central West Midlands
Also co-funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority 

Continued investment in the BFI Skills Clusters seeks to consolidate and build on the work from the previous funding period which saw over 26,000 people benefitting from training provision between April 2023 and September 2025, 291 education partners engaged, and over 900 industry/employer stakeholder relationships fostered across the period. This has included mentoring programmes, paid traineeships and support for new entrants. Going forwards, there will also be CPD programmes to support the development and retention of mid-career workers, and training in newly developing areas such as sustainability and the effective and ethical use of AI. The Clusters also will increase focus on engaging working-class participants, due to significant underrepresentation in the sector, and on upskilling the existing workforce alongside continuing to support new entrants into the sector against identified needs.   

In addition to funding the existing Skills Clusters, a further £2.85m will be invested in broadening the geographical reach of the programme, introducing further BFI Skills Clusters where there is evidence of a need to build strong crew bases. The BFI will open the additional Skills Clusters funding for applications from early July 2026. 

“The first three years of the BFI Skills Clusters has shown us that supporting localised training and work-based-learning opportunities is vital to building a workforce that better reflects local populations and ensuring our production hubs have ready access to the breadth of skills needed to support both domestic and inward-investment production,” said Sara Whybrew, Director of Skills and Workforce Development at BFI. “Earning and spending in the same place is good for local economies, and enabling more people to pursue, develop, and sustain a career in screen on their doorstep also makes the sector accessible to a greater diversity of people. We’d like to thank the Skills Clusters for the impactful work they have achieved since 2023, and we look forward to the next three years and to welcoming new delivery partners as we grow the portfolio and geographical footprint of the Clusters.” 

“The UK’s film and TV industry provides an invaluable contribution to our country,” said Creative Industries Minister, Ian Murray. “It generates billions for our economy, employs thousands of people, and demonstrates this country’s talents on a global stage. This investment through the BFI Skills Clusters programme will ensure that people across the whole country have the opportunity to build real careers in this industry, which is one of the key aims of the government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan.” 

Alongside the BFI Skills Clusters, BFI National Lottery Skills funding will continue to support a pipeline of UK-wide interventions between 2026-2029, many with localised delivery models to maximise engagement, reach, and representation, including Careers and Progression funding, Young Creatives funding, BFI Film Academy, and the Good Work Programme for Screen fund.