South West First Post Scheme

First Post is an innovative new entrants training scheme for the post production industry. We are running it as a pilot scheme in the South West, but it has already run successfully in London.

Designed by the industry, for the industry, and supported by the South West Regional Development Agency and South West Screen, this modular scheme will give new talent entering the Post Production world a thorough grounding in technical operations, customer and commercial skills. It will be held over six months, with day release sessions including interactive learning, classroom lectures, visits to different facilities and presentations from industry experts.

It will provide structured development for your junior level staff. The training committee of UK Post and Skillset have devised a syllabus that fills the gaps in the training of new employees in Post Production. Over thirty facilities houses helped create the course in London, and we are now adapting it to fit the needs of the post production industry in the South West. It will be practically based to provide a snug fit for the sector's needs and directly benefit you as an employer with staff equipped with the skills to hit the ground running and be immediately useful.

It is a two-tier programme: all students learn the basic elements of the industry including general technical training and customer service skills and then split into two streams to do advanced training in either technical operations or customer and commercial skills.

Ultimately, First Post aims to become a recognised industry standard training scheme. Students will be continually tested throughout the course and the results will be fed back to you, the employer. The student will receive a certificate of achievement on completion of the course.

First Post 2007

First Post South West is up and running. We had the first two blocks of training last week. Both sessions were taken by industry experts from the region, and were a great success.

Charlotte Crosse, series producer, ran the Script to Screen block which gave trainees a whole perspective on the production from commissioning on. She also took them on an experiential visit to the studio shoot of Casualty, where they sat with the director during the shoot, and an editor cutting a programme.

Nick Hyde, broadcast engineer, taught them their first technical day "How TV Works". Films at 59 provided us with kit, so it was a real hands on session where the trainees had a real chance to fill in the holes in their knowledge. Something that is very hard to do when you are working flat out as a runner.

There are eight trainees. Two from the BBC, one from Aardman, two from Films at 59, two from TwoFour Digital and one from Tigress Productions. They will be training in blocks of two days, every three weeks, up until December.

For more information contact Sas Bonser

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