ITV30 – innovative three-way partnership between LJMU (LSS, Student Futures), ITV and Liverpool Film Office

Abstract

This paper reflects on the experience of staff and students involved in ITV30. An innovative approach to placements, bringing together the Liverpool Film Office, ITV Studios and the Screen School to deliver a package of work-based learning to thirty students during the summer of 2022.

Lynn Saunders, of the LFO, said: “I’ve never known so many students on a big set ever!”

It was a first, for all three partners. The Screen School worked closely with LFO and ITV to ensure that students were selected and placed appropriately. Planning not only selection, but preparation for the placements and crucially follow-on support from LFO, particularly for graduating students, to use these placements as a transformative experience, enhancing graduate employment prospects.

Once selected, through a rigorous application and interview process, students completed an online course, Set, Ready, preparing them to work on set, before embarking on two-week placements on, Maternal, a six-part ITV drama currently on ITVX.

This preparation paid off, “They did brilliantly, really got stuck in and felt like part of the team,” said Faiza Tovey, Head of Production at ITV Studios. Several students were retained on this production in paid roles and moved on to more paid work on other projects filming in the north-west.

This innovative three-way partnership between LJMU, ITV and the Liverpool Film Office, proved not only valuable to the students, in creating a network of contacts for them in the northwest, but also to ITV in identifying future talent and employees, and for the Liverpool Film Office by furthering the offer of the regional skills base in film and TV, with a talent pipeline into entry level roles.

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of this new approach to employability, how the screen school can build upon this success and lessons learned from it.

ITV30 – innovative three-way partnership between LJMU (LSS, Student Futures), ITV and Liverpool Film Office, PowerPoint. Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.