5300 Skillset itself doesn't provide training, but oversees training policy and strategy for the broadcast, film, video and multimedia sector. It can't tell you how to become a Director of Photography or a Casting Director overnight, but it will tell you what you need and where to start. Designed for both new entrants and people already in the industry who wish to progress their careers, this is the premier on-line source of careers and training advice for the UK media industries. This could be used as a indication of how well a course fitted its students to enter the industry. However, lingering echoes of the closed shop coupled with the huge expansion in the 1990s of courses with media-related modules meant it became impossible for the union to continue to apply this type of accreditation consistently and fairly.
Work experience is always difficult to find, and when it turns up it can be fraught with danger.
Worst of all, health and safety can be compromised through inadequate supervision. Employers should have done written risk assessments that take into account young or new workers' inexperience. The independent producers' association, PACT , has a training officer, and promotes a voluntary code of practice for training and work experience in the independent production sector. You have to prove real commitment and ambition to succeed. Equality of opportunity is important, and Channel 4 funds four places to encourage greater participation by new entrants from ethnic minority backgrounds.