How people successfully get in and get on in the UK broadcast television industry: implications for skills policymakers

This thesis examines the working lives of early career media workers in the UK broadcast television industry (BTI) during the 2010 decade. It is a continuation and builds on the 1990s British Film Institute (BFI) study of media workers and labour studies by the Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance. This research presents an area of work that has not been looked at to date and gives a new perspective on working in the media by focusing on a cohort of workers, aged 30 and under, deemed successful ‘hot shots’ by their managers and peers.

The research takes two lines of enquiry. First, it is an audit of the BTI working environment in the 2010s. It reviews data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to question the claim from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) that the UK creative industries are engines of growth in gross value added (GVA) and jobs in the UK economy. The work offers an interpretation of new evidence in its critique of the data on the creative industries. The findings refute the case for growth in terms of GVA and workforce numbers.

Second, the empirical study presents and analyses fieldwork data from two groups. The 25 informants from across the BTI offer the employers’ view. A series of in-depth interviews with 31 respondents supported by an online self-evaluation questionnaire examines the workers’ perspective. The questionnaire is based on the career development model devised for this study. Specifically, it identifies common attributes of successful young media workers. The attribute-composition model of professional identity based on expertise theory, derived from the fieldwork, is a synthesis of ideas not made before in this field.

This research questions the role and effectiveness of the skills policy community in the creative industries. The findings challenge policymakers’ argument that high-skills lead to high skilled jobs. Marginalising the vocational pathway offered by universities and further education colleges with sector skills councils (SSCs) has done little to enhance career progression for workers in high skills industries. Furthermore, these SSCs have failed to increase the creative industries’ diversity or inclusivity.