A new generation of creative leaders will be equipped with the skills they need to steer the television industry into the digital future thanks to the £200,000 Cultivating Creatives in TV (CCTV) Programme being launched by Skillset and the CCTV consortium.

Skillset’s TV Skills Council, which is made up of ten senior industry figures, has awarded its biggest ever grant to CCTV – DV Talent in partnership with Jill Tandy and Janet Evans of Adsum Consulting – to run this 12-month professional development programme. It will help 25 experienced TV creatives master the significant technological and economic challenges facing the television industry.

Leading industry figures will provide ongoing support and training to those taking part through one-to-one mentoring, bespoke coaching, a series of high-level masterclasses, industry-specific management and leadership training, and broad networking opportunities.

The programme will also be run with the support of the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and a number of other significant industry supporters who will be announced shortly. This makes CCTV a truly collaborative, industry-led response to some of the most pressing issues facing the future of television, including the emergence of multiplatform delivery and falling production budgets.

Its launch comes as new statistics reveal that more than a third of creative media employers (34 per cent) who responded to a Skillset survey have been forced to reduce their training budgets.

Preliminary findings from Skillset’s forthcoming report, From Recession to Recovery in the Creative Media Industries, also show that many employers say there is a shortage of workers sufficiently trained in multiplatform – with the flexibility and versatility they believe is essential for the television industry to thrive. Full findings will be revealed next month.

Peter Dale, TV Skills Council Chair and CEO of Rare Day, said: “The economic downturn has placed a considerable strain on the television industry. At the same time producers and broadcasters are coming to terms with big changes across the media landscape. The CCTV Programme is there to enable key talent to tackle these challenges head-on.”

Kate O’Connor, Skillset’s Executive Director of Policy and Development, said: “CCTV is an incredibly exciting training programme, a practical remedy to some major hurdles and challenges. It is designed by industry to be very flexible and responsive to the rapidly changing climate.”

Jill Tandy, programme director of CCTV, said: “Skillset’s support for this scheme comes at the right time for the television industry. It is the leaders with the broader business skills and cross-industry contact network that will be best placed to embrace the rapid changes and turn uncertainty into opportunity.”

While the Creative Leadership Program is primarily aimed at freelancers as a part of Skillset’s Television Freelance Fund, company employees will also be considered. It is for senior producers and above.

For information on how to apply, please visit http://www.dvtalent.co.uk