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Beyond Brokerage scheme helps put film maker in the picture.
01/03/2010
A scheme to help businesses find the best training has helped a young film maker track down a specialist motion picture course, and found it on his doorstep.
Keir Black has already established himself as a freelance film maker, getting rave reviews at film festivals for his ironic black comedy short films. But when he wanted to take his career to the next level and build on his success he was struggling to find an appropriate course in the latest digital camera techniques.
Luckily he was able to tap into the East Midlands’ New Technology Initiative’s Beyond Brokerage scheme.
Beyond Brokerage helps business advisors identify the best Higher Level Skills courses and training for their clients. Specialist High Level Skills Advisors have been recruited in six industry sectors to create a continually updated register of higher level skills training on offer from the region’s colleges, universities and private training companies. It is funded by emda and Arts Council England to provide a streamlined, finely targeted and cost effective method of bridging the gap between supply and demand for development of high level skills.
Keir said: “This is a very tough, competitive industry. I am a freelance film maker, writer and director mainly working in short films as well as doing crew and camera work and music promos. But I really want to break into making full length feature films and further training was vital. I expected to have to take the training in London. I contacted Jo Welch at Skillset who initially put me in touch with another business support organisation but they were unable to help due to their lack of expertise in my field. So Jo then pointed me towards Filomena Rodriguez, the Beyond Brokerage Higher Level Skills advisor. She found the perfect course right here at the University of Derby. It has certainly helped me out.”
The key success of Beyond Brokerage is the specialist knowledge of each of the advisors. Filomena Rodriguez is an artist and business woman who was responsible for developing Derby’s highly successful creative industries business incubator, Banks’ Mill Studios. She said: “Colleges, Universities and private training organisations offer some fantastic courses but as many are just a couple of days in duration it is really hard for a busy individual to find out what’s available locally. Me and my colleague advisors in the other five industry sectors have tapped into that network of provision and can point businesses towards the best courses for their own situation. The project gets people, already in business, to develop high level skills i.e. University level, to improve their competitiveness, improve the regional economy and make the East Midlands a stronger player in the global market.”
Other specialist advisors have been appointed for Transport Equipment, Food and Drink, Healthcare, Energy and Low Carbon Technology and Bioscience and Construction sectors.
Keir’s short film "Game Over: The Life of Keith Fairway" was recently screened at the Filmstock International Film Festival. Festival director, Neil Fox said it was: “One of my favourite films of the festival. Absolutely insane. I loved the way it was done… a great film”