Industry News

UK employers collectively pay around £4 billion a year into The Growth and Skills Levy, formerly known as the Apprenticeship Levy, but a significant proportion of that is going unspent.

It should be providing employers with the funds they need to develop essential skills. But it’s not flexible enough, which means industries like ours are contributing millions of pounds to a Levy that it can’t effectively use. What’s more, these funds are just sitting there until they’re swallowed up by the Treasury after 2 years (12 months from April 2026).

The problem is that the Levy is ring-fenced for more traditional apprenticeships, which are generally designed for more junior and entry-level, full-time employees. This means that many professionals are being denied access to the kind of shorter, more flexible and specialist qualifications they need to progress. Especially in the screen industry, where more than half the workforce is freelance, moving between short-term contracts and operating in an increasingly competitive global market that demands continual upskilling.

A prime example of this crucial gap is the RTS Mini MBA in TV & Streaming Media. Together with over 100 industry leaders, we developed the CPD-accredited, on-demand course to address a recognised shortfall in commercial and strategic skills across the sector. Its online learning management system allows our learners to access the material wherever they are and whenever they are able to study. Yet innovative training of this kind does not qualify under the existing Levy framework. At a time when our industry is fast becoming more complex, and having to adapt to new technologies and market forces, this is precisely the type of business education needed to equip professionals and secure the UK’s position as a world-leader in television.

I put this problem to Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for DCMS, at the 2025 RTS Cambridge Convention. She said that she “had heard loud and clear about the unique challenges that [the Media and Entertainment] sector faces in trying to use the Growth and Skills Levy.” They had also identified, as part of the Creative Industries Sector Plan in their Industrial Strategy, that “skills gaps in TV, film and across the creative industries” are one of the “key brakes” on this “fast-growing [sector]”.

But little has changed, even though the speed of the sector’s growth is now undeniable.

Recently, the DCMS published new statistics that showed the creative industries’ GVA grew four times faster than that of the UK economy, by an estimated 4.6%. That means it made up approximately 5.5% of GVA across the UK’s whole economy. Just think how much more we would grow if we could lift those brakes, target those skills gaps and invest in our talent effectively.

This is why we are calling on the government to broaden the scope of the Growth and Skills Levy. Freeing up the funds for shorter, more flexible and professional training wouldn’t just benefit the individual freelance producer or in-house executive. With better investment in the industry’s workforce, we would ensure the next 100 years of UK television are as pioneering as the last.