With preliminary work on a £70m film and TV studio complex in Liverpool starting this week the city’s Film Office is offering 1,000 people the chance to start a career in the industry. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool Film Office is offering 1,000 people from across the city region the opportunity to kick-start a career in the TV and film industry.

As preliminary work on a £70m film and TV studio complex in Edge Lane in Liverpool gets under way this week, a new skills initiative is being launched to ensure local people can take full advantage of the expansion of the sector.

Liverpool is already one of the most popular destinations for film and TV crews in the UK. However, a lack of a sound stage and post-production facilities has meant that once the cameras stop rolling, the next stage of production takes place elsewhere.

Backed with £17m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, developer Capital & Centric is looking to change that by creating a major film and studio complex on the site of the former Littlewoods headquarters.

Action! is a new skills initiative from Liverpool Film Office which, over the next three years, will see around 1,000 people benefit from a free-to-access skills programme to build a stronger and diverse screen sector in the city region.

This programme will include career surgeries, training, workshops, industry bootcamps, access to additional employability assets, masterclasses with established crew and opportunities for paid placements on set.

To be eligible for the programme, applicants must be aged 18 and over, live in Liverpool city region and have the right to work in the UK and cannot be in further or higher education.

Those interested must register on the Liverpool Film Office Crew database as a ‘New Entrant’ and select the field/department that is of most interest to them.

Once registered, new entrants will be told of upcoming opportunities and, due to the limited places available on each activity, will be asked to fill in an application form. Click here to register.

Action! has been made possible through £2.3m of BFI National Lottery funding which was awarded to Screen Alliance North, a new skills cluster partnership delivered by Liverpool Film Office, North East Screen, Screen Manchester and Screen Yorkshire.

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Head of Liverpool Film Office, Lynn Saunders, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to announce Action! and cannot wait to see a whole new cohort of film and TV crew coming through our training process and beginning their career in the industry.

“These opportunities will be tailored to specific skill sets to ensure we are providing a real taste of what it’s like to work on a production.”