The Media School

Skills excellence draws Lib Dem attention

2 October 2009

Media School staff and Lib Dem MPs gathered around a Tardis

Leading members from the UK’s Liberal Democrat party used a recent visit to the Bournemouth Skillset Screen and Media Academy to focus on the current and future development of skills to support the country’s creative industries.

Members of Parliament Don Foster and Stephen Williams joined Baroness Sharp and Baroness Bonham-Carter during a break from the party’s national conference to tour the Arts University College at Bournemouth (AUCB) and the Media School at BU.

The group was accompanied by Dinah Caine, Chief Executive Officer, and Kate O’Connor, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, of Skillset with Professor Stuart Bartholomew, Principal of the AUCB; Stephen Jukes, Dean of the Media School at BU and Academy co-directors Richard Johns and Murray Weston.

Originally launched under the Skillset banner in 2006, the Bournemouth Academy is a joint venture between the two institutions and a recognised centre of excellence in film education and training. It remains one of only seven Screen Academies in the UK and one of only two Skillset Screen and Media Academies in the country.

Skillset is the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses to ensure future of the UK’s creative media industries. Academy status serves as an endorsement from the UK film and media industry that the AUCB and BU provide the best education and skills development for the future workforce at further, higher and postgraduate levels of education.

The group’s visit to BU’s unique HD media studio offered an opportunity to meet Andrew Ireland, Associate Dean for undergraduate study in the Media School. Ireland is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at BU focusing on historical practices of producing television drama.

As part of his research, Ireland is revisiting the studio-based production techniques used in the early 1960s by filming an episode of Doctor Who, complete with iconic props linked to the programme including a replica Tardis built by a BU.