Technical training courses existed, often quite general ‘stage management’ or ‘technical’ courses run by drama schools that the cynics suspected might actually be there just to get the actors’ showcase performances on-stage. This changed over time, notably with Theatre Projects’ involvement with LAMDA from 1965 onwards which ensured that active working professionals passed current (and evolving) knowledge on to students rather than just teaching courses as they had always been taught. At the end of the course you would end up with a qualification - but in many cases employers would distrust these, preferring those who’d learn their craft in the real world rather than being formally taught.

Over time, though, real world teach became broken by funding cuts, by changes in working practice, by cultural shifts. The line of knowledge became fractured; it became difficult to find a job where you could learn on the job.

At the same time, other cultural shifts were taking place. A new working culture was evolving that emphasised the need to work safely while preserving the health of those doing the work. Those specifying the work were required to demonstrate that they were doing it safely As part of that, many felt it was necessary to have some formal way of demonstrating that their staff knew what they were doing - trust in word of mouth was no longer enough. This is perhaps understandable as the scale of the job evolved from hanging painted cloths on flown battens to hanging often tons of lighting and sound equipment above an audience... There came a need not just for more formal training - to actually help people know how to do the work better - but for formal qualifications, a standardised way of showing that you’d been trained how to do the work.

It’s important to understand that these two inter-related but ultimately separate things. You can be trained how to do something without having anything to ‘prove’ that you have that knowledge. TTTS, the organisation from which Skillscene evolved, ran many great training courses over its ten year history. They served a generation of technicians well, particularly at a time when entertainment technology was evolving rapidly. But they provided no formal qualification - no proof that you had been trained to a certain standard (-in Scotland, the Scottish Theatres Technical Training Trust provided training based on the TTTS model, but also tried to provide standardised qualifications). *** WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THIS?? ***

Conversely, drama schools offer qualifications, diplomas or, in cases where the college is affiliated with a university, a degree. You get a document saying you have been taught, but there is no consistency as to what you have been taught. Comparing one college’s degree with another can be like comparing apples to oranges. That can be problematic if what you actually need to know is that someone knows how to rig a light safely.

There have been many attempts to define qualifications that allow apples to be compared with apples. NVQs - ‘National Vocational Qualifications’ - were one such approach. They are a national standard qualification, not limited to the entertainment industry, intended to be awarded by assessment and training to recognise competency in particular areas and intended to be particularly useful for those who had learnt or were learning on the job. A lot of work was put into NVQs for the entertainment industry by a lot of very talented people... but they never really achieved their ambitions. **WAS THIS WHAT THE AETTI DID? *** Similarly, in the early days of Skillscene the organisation helped create National Occupational Standards for theatre and television lighting - formal, standardised definitions of common tasks such as rigging a light, an attempt to ensure that anyone who wanted to learn how to achieve this task learn the same definition of that task. These were less than satisfactory as well. Pinning down and formally defining the wide range of tasks involved in putting on a show turns out to be really hard...

Which brings us to where we are today. Our industry is packed full of people with an enormous range of skills. Some have formal qualifications from drama schools. Some may have formal qualifications in skills useful but not specific to the entertainment industry - electrical or mechanical engineering qualifications, for example. Some will have just started doing their job, learning as they go. All will have refined their skills or learnt new ones on every job they do, learning from their own experience and the experience of working with others. Permanent employees may enjoy training courses organised by their employers. And both employees and freelance staff may have taken the formal or informal training courses now offered by a wide range of sources, especially manufacturers and suppliers aiming to promote and support new products and technologies by ensuring people know how to use them. These, again, are great at imparting knowledge, less good at providing formal recognition of the knowledge that has been imparted.

As you’ve probably gathered, there is a pressure to formalise both the things we do as part of our job (the skills) and the way we recognise who has which skills - who can do a job well, properly and safely - through a series of qualifications. Doing this would allow everyone to compare the level of skills between different people in meaningful ways. For employers, that helps chose the best people to do a job. For employees, that means being able to prove you are the best person to do a job - if you’ve taken the time to learn some extra skills, don’t you deserve to have those recognised? For those who have to guarantee that the work is done properly - those producing shows, or the insurance companies who insure those producers - there is a powerful need to know that those doing the work of getting the show on really know what they are doing.

Other industries have long recognised this. Not just anyone can claim they are a medical doctor, for example. Engineers who specify how bridges or skyscrapers will be constructed actually need to know what they’re doing, and have the qualifications to prove that. Somehow the entertainment industry, because it’s just been making short-term shows rather than real permanent structures, has never needed to do that. That is changing rapidly, as the scale and demands of the show the entertainment industry is producing is changing.

The Government recognises that industries need help with all of this. It provides bodies to identify and formalise training for industries; these are called Sector Skills Councils. In our industry, that organisation is called CC Skills, for Creative & Cultural Skills (www.ccskills.org.uk) - though it includes every aspect of creative and cultural work, performing as well as backstage. CC Skills is really about the theory and management rather than necessarily delivering hands-on solutions. That task falls to the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural (nsa-ccskills.co.uk), which is hands-on: it’s aim is to make sure that courses and qualifications are available for students that meet the practical needs of employers. It is also responsible for encouraging the take-up of government-funded apprentices. This is, of course, taking us back to where we began, with young people learning from those who’ve been doing a job for a long time by working alongside them - but in a more structured way that includes a formal training element and so can result in a standard, formal qualification. The NSA also though the industry needed somewhere to train, which is what led to the creation of the £15m Backstage Centre in Purfleet (thebackstagecentre.com). The organisation’s primary focus is to bring new people into the industry, though, rather than to provide ongoing training to those already working in it.

Some industry organisations have taken it upon themselves to try to provide relevant, standardised qualifications, as accessible to those already in the industry as those new to it. The ABTT (Association of British Theatre Technicians) offers its members a variety of training courses to standardised, certified ‘bronze’ and ‘silver’ standards and, through its TAP Technical Access Passport scheme, providing a standard way of recording each member’s qualifications or training certificates. PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association) has created the National Rigging Certificate for riggers in the UK, giving two levels of qualified riggers. In the US it has taken this further with its Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP) which provides standard tests for riggers in arenas, riggers in theatre and entertainment electricians. The list of those who have taken the test and become Certified is, in effect, a list of those who are serious about the work they do.

Clearly, there are a lot of people working to solve the challenges of providing training and qualifications, and this is a good thing. The trouble is if they all head off in their own particular direction without talking to each other. One of the aims of Skillscene now is to provide a link between all of these organisations, free from the different vested interests each inevitably has, and providing a voice for those all of this work is ultimately aimed at - those who could learn from the training and benefit from the resulting qualifications. These are the people who often have the hardest time having their say in all of this since they are all individuals, and many are freelance individuals who tend to be more concerned about getting the next job done than having time to talk hypothetically about a possible future qualification, whereas trade organisations, unions, manufacturers and suppliers all have people whose very job involves being part of those discussions.

But if you’re one of those individuals, keep this in mind: like it or not, though, qualifications - the ability to prove you know something before you’re allowed to do it - are going to be come more important. It will affect you, so you should have your say, whether to argue for access to more training courses or for your long years of actually doing the job you do to be taken into account. Hopefully Skillscene can provide you with a route to do that.