FT2 was set up in 1985 as a not for profit training organisation, a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee to provide apprenticeship-style training for people wishing to work in the freelance sector of the film and television industry in junior technical, production and craft areas.
· Regular written and verbal reports on training from industry practitioners, trainees, tutors and staff.
· Grievance, disciplinary and complaints procedures
· A staff appraisal system and the support and training for all staff to have achieved, or be working towards, their own relevant qualification (for example the Director has a Learning and Development NVQ at Level 5 and our Co-ordinators who manage the trainees have Learning and Development NVQs at Level 3).
· Annual objectives set by the board and monitored through the year
· Tracking of former trainees one year after their training has been completed
· Risk management and financial management scrutiny by the Board and the Board’s Finance and Personnel Sub Committees
· Annual reports to Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for Creative Media, and reports to other funding organisations as appropriate
· External evaluation of our systems and training
External evaluation includes assessment as below:
FT2 and our training schemes are externally evaluated in a number of ways:
FT2 is an Investors People organisation and was re-recognised as such on 31 August 2006. This assessment looked both at the development of both FT2 staff and trainees on our full time schemes.
FT2 achieved status as a Skillset Approved Training Provider in accordance with Skillset Approval standards and criteria in 2004 and has subsequently been successfully re-assessed.
This new entrant project , which received National ESF funding, was externally evaluated.
The Executive Summary is given here and the full report can be downloaded below:
"This report evaluated FT2?s National Audio Visual Freelance Training programme for new entrants which ran from January 2005 until June 2007. The training programme was a response to two areas of concern:
- Government research into the expanding audio visual industry identified shortages in the labour market and that "an extra 200 new entrant training places a year are required to meet the increased demand for technical crews" ("A Bigger Picture" DCMS 2001);
- Further research indicated a workforce from a narrow range of backgrounds and measures were required to encourage people from a wider range of backgrounds to work in the industry, which better reflects the makeup of the population as a whole.
The programme not only tackles both the shortage of adequately trained assistants and targets the unemployed, women, the disabled and those from ethnic minority backgrounds, but it has been designed to produce well qualified assistants through a mixture of short training courses and work placements, and to equip them with the technical and personal skills necessary to secure employment.
The results speak for themselves. It has been hard to find faults with the programme and the training has been so successful that the demand for FT2 trainees by production companies has outstripped supply. Not only were targets achieved, but the programme has been turning out trainees who are sought after by employers and are capable of immediate employment in their chosen field in the audio visual industry.
The reasons for this success stem mainly from the synergy between the FT2 Board Members and the programme which is both dynamic and innovative. It informs Board discussions and so influences FT2 policy and strategy to improve the training - especially as a result of new technology.
For the future, a recent Skillset review of training models has imposed a new challenge for FT2 to deliver a shorter programme, reducing its 2-year programme to 42 weeks, which is likely to increase the level of previous experience required from successful applicants. This may have implications for the target groups, although FT2 will undoubtedly use all their efforts to maintain the high standards that the training programme has so far established."
FT2 National Audio Visual Freelance Training Evaluation Report
