Skills Investment Fund Addresses Urgent Skills Shortages In Animation
Skwigly
The first two applications to the £8m Creative Skillset Challenge Fund have been green-lit and will address one of the animation industry’s urgent skills shortages of people trained in the animation software, CelAction.
As part of the Skills Investment Fund (SIF) programme, the Challenge Fund opened recently for employers from film, TV, animation, games and VFX to bid for co-investment of up to £8m over the next two years until 2015. It is a direct route for employers to apply for co-investment to deliver creative and practical ways to boost skills and develop diverse new talent and will address identified skills gaps and shortages to meet the growth needs of the industries.
Mackinnon & Saunders Digital Studio was awarded funding to run a two-week intensive training course to establish a talented team of production-ready CelAction animators within the North West of England. And the successful application from Cutlass Productions will support CelAction training with modules in rigging, animation and advanced features. This will train a pool of animators and allow CelAction TV animation to be made in the South East of England.
The SIF is funded by voluntary industry contributions with Government match funding industry pound for pound to support the provision of training. Employers who contribute to the SIF can make applications ranging from £10,000 to £1million.
Miles Bullough, Chair of Creative Skillset’s Animation Council and Managing Director of Wildseed Studios, said: “I am delighted the first applications supported by the Challenge Fund have come from the animation industry. Research shows the industry faces urgent skills shortages in storyboarding, CelAction, production management and compositing and rigging. These courses will start to address these shortages and help to secure the continued growth of the industry.”
Ian Mackinnon, Director at Mackinnon and Saunders Digital, said, “For our latest show, Wanda and the Alien, we researched several software options and CelAction is the most appropriate for our needs. With no appreciable CelAction skills base in the North West, however, we were delighted and hugely appreciative that the Creative Skillset Challenge Fund is able to help us train skilled animators to work with this new software.”
David Curry from Cutlass Productions, said: “We at Cutlass are all thrilled to have received this support from the Creative SkillsetChallenge Fund allowing South East England based animators to upgrade their skills to include CelAction .This training action will ultimately not only improve the digital production capability in our local area but also make a real difference in our company’s ability to secure broadcast commissions for our animation shows currently in development. Hence, it directly helps generate high-tech jobs in our region and increases the chance of another global smash hit such as Peppa Pig emerging from these shores.”
The Challenge Fund welcomes and encourages applications to support skills, training and development within the digital content sectors from a range of large and small employers, either individually or in consortia for single sectors or across sectors. www.creativeskillset.org/
Employers must evidence that the activity could not take place without the support of the Challenge Fund and that it does not duplicate existing projects. Activities may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Work experience
- Internships
- Apprenticeships
- Intensive training schemes
- Management and leadership programmes
- Shadowing and mentoring programmes
- Professional development of employees and freelancers
For employers who would like to consider alternative options offered by the SIF, the following are also available:
- Trainee Finder – companies can access the best new entrants from a diverse talent pool and also receive match funding www.creativeskillset.org/
traineefinder - Commissioned Training – created for individual or groups of employers who have identified collective industry training requirements and can then procure training from approved central resources.
Dinah Caine CBE, CEO of Creative Skillset, said: “We are delighted the panel has awarded funding to these applications. The Challenge Fund addresses the skills priorities identified by the industries while enabling employers to deliver and shape the training to suit their own requirements.”