Skillset/UK Film Council Feature Film Production Workforce Survey 2008

7.1 Qualifications held

As was the case in the 2005 survey report, the vast majority of the sample (88%) held some kind of qualification, with 60% having obtained CSE, GCSE or O level qualifications. Over half the sample (55%) held A levels or S levels; and an even larger proportion (57%) held an undergraduate qualification. 15% of respondents held a postgraduate qualification, 7% in a film or media subject. Nearly one in five (18%) held a BTEC, 15% held a City and Guilds qualification and 9% held a NVQ or SVQ. The figure that held another type of qualification (10%) is lower than in 2005 because the figures for City and Guilds and BTEC have been reported separately in the present survey.

Table 7.1.1 Do you hold any of the following types of qualifications?

Note: the categories in this table are not mutually exclusive; therefore the percentages add up to more than 100%.

7.1.1 Highest academic qualification held

Table 7.1.2gives the highest academic qualification obtained by each respondent, and it shows that over half of those surveyed (58%) held a graduate qualification (an undergraduate or postgraduate degree or diploma), an increase of 12% on the figure reported by the 2005 survey.

As reported in the 2005 survey, this is higher than the proportion of graduates in the UK workforce as a whole (31% of the economically active population aged 16 or older had obtained a N/SVQ level 4 or 5, equivalent to graduate level, according to the LFS 2006).

Despite the rise in the proportion of graduates working in film, the feature film workforce is still less likely than the audio visual workforce as a whole to have graduate level qualifications - 69% of the 2005 Survey of the Audio Visual Industries’ Workforce respondents had such qualifications. This is likely to be due to the older age profile of film survey respondents, as the likelihood of holding a graduate qualification decreases with age.

For 15% of the respondents, their highest qualification was a postgraduate qualification. For a further 43%, their highest qualification was an undergraduate degree or diploma. Since the 2005 survey report there has been a marked change in the relative proportions of those with and without media-related degrees. The 2005 survey reported more graduates with degrees in a media related subject than in other subjects, whereas the opposite was found in the present survey. So while the proportion of graduates increased overall, this was driven by a rise in the number of those holding non-media degrees entering the industry. Appendix 5 provides details of the non-media degree subjects undertaken by respondents.

A fifth (20%) had no academic qualifications, unchanged from the 2005 survey report - this group was divided into those with some other kind of qualification (8%) and those who reported no qualifications at all (12%).

Table 7.1.2 Highest academic qualification held

7.1.2 Qualification level by occupational group

The highest proportion of graduates was found in the costume department (82%) and in production and script development (79%). Construction had the lowest (12%), although one third of construction workers had non-academic qualifications- higher than any other occupational group.

Table 7.1.3 Highest academic qualification obtained (by occupational group)

7.1.3 Qualification level by other workforce characteristics

There was a marked difference in the level of academic qualifications held by year of entry into the film industry. Nearly two thirds of those entering the industry in the 1990s had a graduate qualification (rising to over 70% of those entering since 2000) compared with 43% of those entering in the 1980s, 29% of those entering in the 1970s and 10% of those starting in the film industry before 1969.

As was noted in the 2005 film production workforce survey report, this year of entry difference may explain the fact that those on the lowest feature film income (under £15,000) were the most likely to hold a graduate level qualification, as shown in Table 7.1.5. Age also plays a role in determining income, with older workers being more likely to earn higher wages, and this may explain why those with no qualifications (who are likely to be older than workers with higher qualifications) are more likely to earn £50,000 or more than no film production income, whereas the reverse is true for graduates.

Respondents who had been unemployed and seeking work at some point in the past year were slightly less likely to hold graduate level qualifications than those who had been fully employed all year, and slightly more likely to hold no academic qualifications, although the gap has narrowed since the 2005 survey report (Table 7.1.7).

Table 7.1.4 Highest academic qualification obtained (by year of entry into film industry)

Table 7.1.5 Highest academic qualification obtained (by gross income from feature film work in the past year)

Table 7.1.6 Highest academic qualification obtained (by gross income from all audio visual industry work in the past year)

Table 7.1.7 Highest academic qualification obtained (by experience of unemployment in the past year)

7.1.4 Qualification level by demographic characteristics

The marked differences reported in the 2005 survey between men and women in terms of their highest academic qualification obtained were once again apparent. Three quarters of women had graduate qualifications compared to just under half of the male respondents (48%). 16% of men had no qualifications at all, but this was true for only 6% of women. These differences were still statistically significant after taking account of the different age and occupational group profiles of men and women: women were significantly more likely than men of the same age and occupational group to have achieved higher academic qualifications. [1]

Table 7.1.8 Highest academic qualification obtained (by gender)

There is some indication from the table below that ethnic minority film industry workers are slightly more likely than those describing themselves as white to hold postgraduate qualifications. However, with such a small sample of ethnic minority respondents this apparent difference is not statistically significant.

Table 7.1.9 Highest academic qualification obtained (by ethnic group)

The highest qualification obtained did vary by age, confirming the findings reported in section 7.1.3 for year of entry into the film industry. Younger respondents were considerably more likely to hold a graduate level qualification than their older counterparts. Over three quarters of those aged under 35% had a graduate qualification compared with 52% aged 35-49 and 29% of those aged 50 and older.

Table 7.1.10 Highest academic qualification obtained (by age group)