主播大秀

Top Gear isn't the only media talking point across the land. I've been struck by how fast Digital - skills, training, content and platforms - has been dominating conversation where I've been this week. Since we launched  I’ve been in Bristol, Bournemouth and London seeing new initiatives in action; talking to students at Bournemouth University (pictured) about careers, catching up with the work of The Bristol Partnership and taking part in a panel on the skills gap at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit.

Big challenges and a growth spurt in Britain’s digital economy are evenly distributed at least. Business is booming outside the capital - 74% of digital firms are now based beyond London and places such as Bournemouth, Liverpool and Brighton are emerging as the industry’s runaway success stories. 

In fact forget the West Coast of America, it's the sunny south coast of England - it was certainly bathed in sunshine when I visited - that's making the pace. Bournemouth has become the UK’s fastest-growing town in the digital economy, with digital start-ups rising 212% between 2010 and 2013. Astonishingly, 50% of all UK digital companies were launched after 2008, despite the challenge of the global recession.

That’s a testament to the sheer determination of a UK creative community who want to show the world what they can do. This isn't about 'Little Britain', to borrow a well-known TV title, it's a big global business - £17 billion in exports alone.

As I said to the students in Bournemouth - to keep ahead of those trends we need to be the best, and to attract the best people. We have to make our content brilliant, relevant, and available not just in the formats we all use now – but for the formats of the future that aren’t even invented yet.

There’ll be 40 million active tablet users in the UK alone by 2017, and there are already 130 mainstream TV apps on the market in Britain. The era of singular media is well and truly over and our ‘Always On’ society is spoilt for content choice.

It’s not always easy for the 主播大秀 to compete in this new world – we’re much smaller than some of global competition now – but we’re pretty good at it and trying to get better.

The 主播大秀 is now the top Twitter news publisher in the world; while 主播大秀 Sport builds huge digital communities around its authoritative website and national events - from the FA Cup to this week's Six Nations' climax; and our iPlayer has led the way in on-demand video.

But, without doubt one of our biggest challenges is keeping up with audiences and to better reflect and understand their lives across the whole of the UK.

If we’re to survive, then the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs must be at the heart of everything we do. My role includes directing the 主播大秀's training arm, The Academy, and it’s one of the most important jobs I've ever done. The Guardian panel yesterday talked about the digital skills gap – it’s there, it’s growing and needs to be addressed urgently, and not just with current workforces. Our 主播大秀 duty to educate, inform and entertain has never been more important. In this new world, the 主播大秀 can act as a discover-inspirer for the next generation to open up the potential of the digital world and their place in it.

So what are we doing? As well as developing the skills of our own staff and freelancers, we want to inspire the next generation. Over 1,500 13-14 year olds from schools all over Bristol are currently taking part in photography, animation, journalism, presenting and production skills workshops in ‘Talent Ticket’ - a partnership between 主播大秀 Bristol and the University of the West of England. It was great to see it in action at our Whiteladies Road base.

Our huge Make it Digital initiative puts digital creativity firmly in the spotlight. It will help build the nation’s capabilities for an even younger group with an ambitious range of new programmes, partnerships and projects. We're creating up to 5,000 主播大秀 digital trainees; giving one million coding devices (‘Micro bits’) to every child in year 7 across the UK; partnering with around 50 organisations from Teen Tech to BT, Code Club to Google; and launching a season of dedicated 主播大秀 programmes and online activity involving some of our biggest brands, including EastEnders, Radio 1 and Children in Need. 

Talking of our partners, a few days ago Creative Skillset launched ‘Hiive’ – a terrific online tool for matching creative industry needs with the right people with the right skills. 主播大秀 Birmingham has also joined Bristol in holding a  – a programme of events aimed at developing skills, sharing knowledge and creating networking opportunities for the city’s digital sector.  

Then there are the 主播大秀’s graduate trainee schemes with a range of placements that take place across the whole of the 主播大秀, including production, journalism, technology, business, legal, digital and journalism.

I know that both our apprenticeships and traineeships are incredibly popular and tough to get in to but we took on 72 apprentices last year and 177 this year, from a whole range of background and educational achievements. So, our appetite and capability is growing.

It's competitive for sure, but no one should be held back from pursuing their dreams - just go for it. If you want to write, blog.  If you want to make films, go out and make them. If you want to animate, the software has never been better. Go forth and create. In fact, go and try - our new experimental, digital launch pad. It’s good. 

I will end though, with a thought to ponder, a challenge to our more traditional industry networks. I attended the RTS Awards on Tuesday, which got me thinking. Adam Curtis has just made a haunting documentary - all two hours and 18 minutes of it - available to watch on iPlayer, without being shown on a traditional telly channel.

Bitter Lake, in my books, is the first digital non-fiction masterpiece - but where will it be recognised by our industry?  It doesn't really fit our current telly dominated awards categories but as everything we watch, listen and consume changes shape, platforms and structure, and as we train people to make content however they want for wherever they want, we need to make sure we can celebrate that properly too. Or we will fall behind fast.

Peter Salmon is Director, England

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