Laura Mansfield sounds like a glass-half-full kind of person. Her body language is that of a can-do leader. This is just as well, as she has assumed the leadership of ScreenSkills at a challenging time for many of those seeking careers in the television industry.

Research published by the training body last month offered some stark statistics on the lack of jobs in the UK screen sector since the post-Covid production boom burst, forcing many to work elsewhere as they wrestled with rent or mortgage payments.

Among the key findings, 57% of respondents said they have struggled to find work in the last year, while 73% said they have extra work capacity. Overall, the UK screen sector is working at only 60% capacity. A third of people said they were dissatisfied with their career progress during 2024.

The report identified an 18% decline in commissioning activity since 2022 and evidence of less risk-taking as broadcasters, not least the BBC, relied on tried-and-tested shows.

While Greater London remains the largest driver of screen employment, 60% of the workforce is located outside London. Each local screen industry faces specific challenges. Workers in the south-west and Scotland face retention issues stemming from low demand for unscripted projects. London is seeing pressure on VFX and craft roles, while the north-east, north-west, Yorkshire and the Midlands have a proportionally greater need to upskill workers in technical roles.

“Some of the things we’ve found out have been sobering,” says Mansfield. When she arrived at ScreenSkills in early 2024, she brought more than 30 years of TV production experience; 25 of them were spent as Managing Director of Outline Productions, the company she set up in 1999 with Helen Veale. One of Outline’s best-known shows, The House of Tiny Tear­aways, was nominated for several RTS awards.

Like many senior TV people, she began her career at the BBC. Straight from Cambridge, where she read modern languages (she is fluent in French and Spanish), she joined Janet Street-Porter’s fabled “yoof TV” operation in Manchester, working on such programmes as The Travel Show and Reportage. “It was a great time to be a young person starting out in the TV industry,” Mansfield recalls. “There were large teams of young people. Here was a whole department focused on taking risks, giving us opportunities and absolutely dedicated to training.”

After the BBC, she headed to London to polish her CV on such high-profile entertainment programmes as Eurotrash and The Clive James Show. Such opportunities are unlikely to be ­available to those at the start of their TV careers today. And that’s where ScreenSkills comes in. The body, which replaced Creative Skillset in 2018, offers skills support covering animation, children’s TV, film, games, high-end television (HETV), unscripted TV and visual effects.

It also provides information on where to find training across sectors and hosts a range of e-learning modules on its website. ScreenSkills oversees five Skills Funds (Animation, Children’s TV, Film, HETV and Unscripted). The first four are paid for by the industry from voluntary levy contributions, based on a percentage of production budgets; the Unscripted TV Skills Fund is mandatory, with equal contributions from broadcasters, streamers and indies. Nearly a quarter of a million people are registered on ScreenSkills’ database.

Since arriving at the helm, Mansfield has moved fast. She has formed partnerships with other industry bodies, including the Creative Diversity Network (CDN), Channel 4 and the BFI, as well as offering greater transparency in its governance and work. ScreenSkills’ ability to help prepare new entrants for a TV career is clearly paying dividends: its HETV Skills Fund paid for 14 trainees to work on Adolescence.

Lisa Opie, the ex-BBC Studios chief who runs gaming company Ubisoft Reflections, now chairs a smaller, more skills-focused board.

The recently published research, commissioned jointly with 4Skills and undertaken by Ampere Analysis, reveals the worrying lack of work for those wanting a TV career. “If you’ve only got 30% of a job, that’s a problem. Therefore, as an industry we have a challenge,” says Mansfield, a former Chair of Pact.

“We can either help you figure out how you can upskill – so you can fill the other 70% of your time – or, in this modern world, help you to have more of a portfolio career. Then you can do the screen industry jobs you love but perhaps accompany them with other ways of earning a living.”

The Ampere report found that underemployment was particularly acute in junior- and mid-role levels, with evidence that the recent gains in creating a more diverse TV workforce risked being undermined as those from black, Asian and other ethnic groups who had recently joined the sector were leaving because of the job shortage. Many respondents said they wanted more training in pitching skills and management.

Depressingly, senior roles in TV still tend to be male, while the sector remains predominantly middle-class: just 31% of respondents said they came from a working-class background. The paradox is that there is more content available than ever before.

The UK’s world-renowned creativity will ensure the industry’s future growth, Mansfield insists, adding: “Leadership and management is an ongoing, perennial skills gap that we’ve known about for a long time. Also, there’s a real interest in AI and virtual production.”

She is a great supporter of the new RTS Mini MBA in Television and Streaming Media. ScreenSkills is helping to fund 12 MBA students via the Adobe Foundation and ScreenSkills’ Unscripted TV Skills Fund and providing coaching to ensure students obtain the most from the course.

Mansfield, who has recently been enjoying The White Lotus, LOL: Last One Laughing and Adolescence, draws attention to what the new research shows about screen-sector diversity. “Craft and technical departments are more diverse than other areas of the industry,” she says.

“There’s also a range of statistics that highlight the fact that we’ve come quite a long way in terms of diversity, but we’ve still got a long way to go. We’re maybe doing better than before – 14% of the workforce are from black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic groups. But that varies very much according to nation and region.”

Last year, more than 29,000 people used ScreenSkills’ resources, principally training courses. However, she says that the organisation is only one part of a bigger ecosystem working with around 100 training partners across the UK and a similar number of indies, as well as bodies like the RTS and Bafta.

She wants ScreenSkills to play a part in ensuring that the screen industries can secure sustainable growth and so enable people and companies to plan for the long term. “I’m very optimistic. We need to face up to the challenges and the uncomfortable truths and then do something about them.

“Careers aren’t going to be perfect but we have an extraordinary eco­system in the UK with a combination of streamers, PSBs, indies, rights holders and incoming investment. That’s unique and very special. We’re part of that and our incredible freelancers are part of that. It’s vital to support one another as we navigate unknown waters.

“Ultimately, we can’t create jobs but we can offer environments where creatives can become job ­generators themselves.”