Call for EOIs: HETV Start a Career in Set Decoration and Props (United Kingdom)

Training for the UK high-end TV industry is supported by the ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills Fund (with contributions from productions companies, broadcasters and SVoDs in the UK).

The High-end TV Skills Fund is looking for an organisation or individual/s who can design and run a training programme across the UK for individuals outside the industry who are keen to learn about starting a career in the set dec and props departments or are transferring from other roles outside of the industry.

The programme should consist of training for 30 people interested in starting a career in HET.

At the end of the training, ScreenSkills will endeavour to source funded placements for 15 people on HETV productions.

Funding Information

• They are looking for bids of up to £37,500
• Following the training, the training provider will produce an alumni booklet of those who have completed the course to help the ScreenSkills HETV team find funded placements for 15 of the participants on high end television productions. Placement costs will be a contribution of £650 x 10 weeks plus £1k towards travel/accommodation – total £7500 per person.

Participant Aims

• The training should be for a minimum of 30 participants based across the UK and should target people from socio-economic backgrounds with half of the cohort being career changers and half being new entrants.
• The following are the minimum diversity aims for this programme:
  • At least 50% of beneficiaries based outside London
  • 20% minority ethnic groups (ethnicity aim)
  • 50% women (gender aim)
  • 10% disability (disability aim)
  • 10% LGBT (sexual orientation and gender identity aim)
• ScreenSkills aims to go beyond legal diversity requirements and considers additional measures of inclusivity, including:
  • employment status
  • whether a person is returning to work following leave
  • geographical location (including representation of nations and regions)
  • socio-economic background.

Key requirements

• The applicant must design, manage, market, recruit and deliver a training programme for 30 individuals who are keen to learn about starting a career in the set dec and props departments.
• The outreach should focus on reaching people from socio-economic backgrounds with half of the cohort being new entrants and half being career changers/ transferers (ie people working in events, visitor attractions, theatre, visual retailing, drivers etc).
• The training should include:
  • an overview of the art department and how set decoration and props work alongside them
  • roles within props and set decoration
  • set-ready sessions
  • how to market yourself and find opportunities
  • finance for freelancers
  • networking opportunities for the participants.

Who can apply?

• ScreenSkills welcomes applications from individuals, partnerships or organisations that have a proven track record of delivering successful industry-standard training projects.
• They particularly welcome applications from providers based in the UK nations and regions, including partnerships between organisations and/or in partnership with freelancers who have worked in set dec and props roles in HETV.
• The successful applicant will need to demonstrate their understanding of HETV training requirements, including the diversity challenges facing the industry and must clearly demonstrate that they have the resources to track the career progression of participants beyond the life of the programme.
• If applicants are already delivering similar training and can expand their offer to include the scope, they are also welcomed to apply.
• Applicants must:
  • demonstrate evidence of appropriate, recent engagement with the industry in the design and delivery of the programme
  • meet critical diversity aims as outlined in this tender, including:
    • making reasonable adjustments to the training (whether face-to-face, content or online and including during the application process) to make it accessible to a diverse audience – they will ask for evidence of your approach and implementation.
    • having an equality policy in place as an employer
    • having a monitoring system in place to track the diversity of the delegates
    • providing diversity and inclusivity training to facilitators
  • gather long-term destination data from the delegates to prove impact of training utilising the ScreenSkills monitoring questionnaire.
  • develop a clear structure for the training, ensuring that it is outcome focused.
  • discuss and agree with those taking part in the programme that they will provide feedback on the training if requested which could include providing ScreenSkills with a quote on their experience of the training.

For more information, visit ScreenSkills.