Spotlighting our National Careers Week online sessions

National Careers Week may be over for another year but we're excited to reveal more about our most significant activity for the week, which aimed to bridge the gap between schools and the film industry: a series of online careers talks from industry professionals, mostly run in collaboration with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Working remotely has increased the need for collaboration across the sector, and we have been delighted to partner with BAFTA this year in expanding their reach across the UK. Our work supports teachers in reaching the Gatsby Benchmarks, and across National Careers Week, we wanted to provide students with a much needed window into the industry.

It is through our partnerships with BAFTA, Speakers for Schools, ScreenSkills and others that we are able to make the prospect of a career in the creative industries more achievable. Almost one in eight UK businesses are creative businesses and Film, Exhibition, TV, Games and Animation play a large role within that. Alongside technical and industry specific skills, there is a need for general, transferable skills such as problem solving, analytical skills and teamwork. Research reveals that creative industries across the UK are driving local and national economic growth, identifying that local economies have grown their creative industries employment by an average of 11 per cent, twice as fast as other sectors. Through offering awareness of various roles at a younger key stage, we hope to raise the importance of working in this ever-growing and much needed sector of business.

The events ran online and were available to local schools in Wales, London, the North of England, the Midlands and the South West; students attended from a variety of primary and lower key stage secondary year groups. The speakers came from departments such as Visual Effects, Production Design, Animation, Costume, and Sound. It is often said that "You can't be what you can't see", and we recognise the importance of our role at Into Film in utilising our industry contacts to develop young people's motivation and skillset for the future. 

The brilliant and insightful speakers were as follows:

BAFTA, Joel Collins, Production Designer

BAFTA, Jeremy Angel, Angels Costumes

Jeremy said: "If you want a career in the film industry, it is about finding something you're really passionate about, discovering the skills you need to do that job and working really hard to achieve things. It doesn't matter what background you are from, passion for succeeding is the most important thing. If you have the passion then most of the time your career dreams can come true".

BAFTA, Nina Hartstone, Sound Editor

Laurie Brugger - Computer Graphics Supervisor

Laurie said: "The path to working in film is more winding and unique to each person than what can easily be described in a single talk or university course syllabus - it's really about building the confidence to try. Even large creative projects like making the visual effects for a film are achieved through familiar processes of teamwork and taking one step at a time. Creating opportunities for young people to learn about career directions in film is an important part of ensuring the UK remains a hub for creativity and production in the future. Thank you very much for the chance to share this with students!"

Laura Ager, Film Programmer

Here's what two of the schools had to say about the sessions:

Teacher, Vicki Edmunds from Chipping Campden School on Laurie Brugger's session: "I really appreciated my students having the chance to discuss careers that they may not have considered before. It was really empowering for them to see a successful woman working on films they know and love and that are held in such high esteem by critics and film fans alike. It was especially interesting to hear Laurie narrate some of the work she had produced the visual effects on and watch the process evolve before our eyes. We now have a shared experience to refer to and that allows me to share other similar opportunities may arise such as the new ScreenSkills free 10-week animation course".

Horton Park Primary School on Jeremy Angel's session: "Wow, what an amazing event. We love Jeremy's work and that was an excellent way to find out about the costume industry in film. And a bunch of kids want to sign up to some of the BAFTA courses already".

For more resources, please check out our careers hub as well as our three recently published articles for National Careers Week:

To join our other partners in collaborating with us and developing audiences for the future, check out our industry page: