BFI to invest £11.85m in UK skills funding

The funding package has been informed 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 investment will go to the BFI Skills Clusters Fund to support its mission to enable collaboration between lead organisations and local industry, education, and training providers.

The fund will support seven regional clusters. In each cluster, it is awarded to a lead delivery partner who will work with other organisations and leverage additional local funding.

BFI Skills Clusters have been awarded a total of £9m over three years, covering:

 

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

A further £2.85m will be invested to broaden the programme’s geographical reach, 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 investment comes as the UK attracted £6.8bn film and high-end TV production spend in 2025, highlighting the need for skilled local crew bases across the country.

Sara Whybrew, Director of Skills and Workforce Development at BFI, said: "The first three years of the BFI Skills Clusters have 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. 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.”

The BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit recently found that film and high-end television production spend in the UK stood at £6.8bn in 2025, a 22% increase from 2024 and the third highest annual spend on record. Discover more here.