Amazon Prime Video has pledged £10M ($13.3M) on UK training initiatives over the next three years to help with the local skills pipeline.
The streamer has joined with the UK’s National Film & Television School (NFTS) to fund 75 places for budding craft and technical workers on a course entitled Prime Video Pathway.
Trainees will be taught in areas such as production, art, locations, camera, sound and accounting, with some subsequently put forward to work on Amazon productions. At least 50% will come from outside of London.
In addition, Amazon has committed to supporting two other training courses with the NFTS: the Prime Video Directors Workshop and Post Production Supervision Certificate.
“The UK is home to an extraordinary wealth of creative talent, and as our home-grown productions grow, we need to support a sustainable and diverse talent pool,” said Amazon Studios Head of UK Originals Dan Grabiner.
NFTS Director Jon Wardle called Prime Video Pathway a “landmark collaboration, which will increase representation behind the camera and scale up the skills required by the many original productions coming down the track.”
The move comes just weeks after Amazon took a multimillion-pound 10-year lease at Pinewood’s Shepperton Studios, next door to Netflix.
The SVoD produces big-budget shows including Good Omens and Anansi Boys in the UK and production of the second series of Lord of the Rings is coming to Berkshire’s Bray Studios later this year.
The influx of work mainly from streamers has created a UK skills crisis, with training body ScreenSkills recently reporting the vast majority of UK producers struggling to fill key roles such as Production Manager and Production Co-ordinator.
Although it takes time, industry bodies have repeatedly stressed training as the most effective way to solve the crisis.
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