FT2 was founded by a joint union/employer initiative in 1985, in response to the changes in the film industry.
The British film studios had gone 'four walled', offering studio space only, and had stopped employing staff crews, which meant that the traditional apprenticeship routes into the industry had disappeared. The employer organisations and the trade unions, recognising the problem, got together and set up a Joint Board for Film Industry Training (JOBFIT) to address the need, with the growth of the freelance sectors, to train young people for freelance careers. As film and television employment began to overlap, the organisation rebranded itself as Film and Television Freelance Training, or FT2.
From the beginning, it was determined that such a training scheme should recruit the best talent available throughout the country and a strong equal opportunities policy was put in place to encourage people from groups under-represented in the industry to apply. The late Tudor Gates, former Chair of FT2 and one of the founder board members explains: 'Very quickly it became apparent that freelance crews needed to be trained in both film and television production skills to maximise their freelance employment opportunities and the organisation was renamed Film and Television Freelance Training (FT2). Originally training junior technical and production crew, over the years FT2 has responded to identified industry need, adding new grades for training. For example, researchers in factual programming in 1997. The scheme has received many awards in recognition of our work and we plan to go on being an innovative and flexible provider of talented trainees...'
