Skills shortage evident in film, television industries, according to WIFT-T report

The film and TV production world is suffering a skills shortage, says a study released at the Banff Television Festival last week by Women in Film and Television - Toronto (WIFT-T). About 40% of production companies surveyed stated they had difficulty in finding people with the skills they need in key job categories, according to Frame Work: Employment in Canadian Screen-Based Media - A National Profile. The report also notes that 74.9% of film and TV distribution firms reported shortages in finding people skilled in acquisitions, and 37% of new media companies indicated difficulty in finding key positions, including in creative/design and technical/programming positions. WIFT-T president Kate Hanley says that the report doesn’t go into why there is a skills shortage. "We have our own ideas (of why there is a shortage)," she tells Canadian Communications Reports. "The business development skills of the creative side and the sophisticated corporate skills that would enable you to run a micro or small market enterprise, including corporate and business planning, and human resource planning are lacking. In a way, I’m not surprised. This is a creative industry and the people running them haven’t usually gone out and gotten an MBA. And second, the companies are very small and typically in companies like that you are not necessarily going to have the resources to just bring in people with these kinds of skills. And there is not in this country a strategy for ongoing training." The study indicates that the industry must come up with a year-round training strategy for freelancers and company employees and owners in the business, Hanley adds. The study also found that visible minorities have made great inroads in the new media sector, but are not in decision-making positions in the film and TV industries. Visible minorities account for 17% of new media employees, which is considerably higher than the 12.6% in Canada’s workforce. The study also revealed that at private broadcasters, women significantly increased their representation in upper-level management positions to 28% in 2001 from 7% in 1988. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., women currently make up 43% of the public broadcaster’s total workforce, up from 36.5% in 1989. Hanley says that Frame Work is the first industry-led study of its kind that measures skills, diversity and employment in the film, TV and new media industries. She adds that Frame Work is important because the labour overview will allow the industry to adapt to changing conditions. "What we feel is very important is that as we move into a global competitive marketplace, we have to start understanding the workforce," says Hanley. "Then we can proactively plan for an industry that is very skills dependent…The purpose was for the very first time was to have a snapshot, and see where the strengths and weaknesses are. Then we can go ahead and plan." The study was based on five main sources: Statistics Canada data from the 2001 Census, the department’s 2003 Labour Force Survey, and the film and video industry studies it conducts; employment equity data obtained from Human Resources and Skills Development in Canada (HRSDC); a series of national surveys conducted in key sectors of the country’s screen-based media industries; data provided directly by CBC English Television, the National Film Board (NFB), and the CRTC for broadcasters with fewer than 100 employees, and literature on screen-based industries. Hanley notes that a series of roundtables will be held as follow-up to the report, including one in South Africa. Frame Work will be presented there in November as part of an international roundtable on diversity and the media. As well, the NFB is sponsoring a national roundtable on diversity in the screen-based media, and City of Toronto will fund a discussion on screen-based media in the Toronto area. A coalition of corporate and government partners, including Bell Globemedia, the Cultural Human Resources Council of Canada and the HRSDC, supported the study.

Skills shortage evident in film, television industries, according to WIFT-T report

Broadcast | June 21, 2004

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us