BBC piloting 'BBC Qualifications' for staff throughout the production industry

Peter Crush, 15 December 2009

The BBC publicly unveiled its state-of-the-art training Academy last night, complete with a mission to launch its own qualifications, and to train not just BBC employees, but employees in the rest of the TV production industry too.

"Today's launch represents our willingness to reach look outwards to create a skilled workforce who will disperse throughout the industry, and not just work for us," said Anne Morrison, director, BBC Academy.

The Academy will make its College of Journalism website freely available to anyone in the UK. It contains masterclasses from leading journalists including Robert Peston and John Humphries. It is also collaborating with Channel 4 and ITV to create training around promoting diversity in the workplace and employability in the media for people with disabilities.

BBC director general Mark Thompson also spoke at the event, saying: "This is a way of doing something big with training. We believe our training expertise should be shared to everyone."

Talking exclusively to HR magazine, Morrison revealed the corporation was in the process of piloting creating ‘BBC qualifications' (similar to those by Tesco and McDonalds). "We're partnering with Bournemouth University to create a BBC qualification in production management," she said. "Students will be able to get a postgraduate qualification even if they haven't been to university."

She said: "For the first time we want to help make our industry one based on what you know rather than who you know."

The BBC spends more than £46m a year on training, equating to more than 700,000 training days, teaching more than 49,000 people.