6 Years Old
Post Production for Unscripted Production Teams - Gorilla Academy - November 2025
We’re already halfway through 2026 and it’s come to that time of year again where I celebrate my company’s birthday and this year it’s my 6th birthday! I was on maternity leave this time last year, so we missed celebrating our 5 year milestone. I was intrigued to see the stats on UK businesses making it to the 6 year mark and this is what AI told me - Roughly 49% of UK businesses are aged 0 to 4 years, while 22% are aged 5 to 9 years. Surviving 6 years officially puts you in the top tier of established UK SMEs. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved in that time, expanding from just me on my own, to bringing on 5 additional trainers and developing lots of new courses and training programmes.
So what’s happened in the past 12 months?
We ran multiple iterations of each of our 1, 2 & 3 days courses plus our shorter courses which allowed us to train 99 people in the PC, PM and PE/HOP role, plus how to set up overseas filming, understanding kit, how to be a better manager and developing great formats for unscripted TV. As well as running our longer form courses, I continued to provide short courses for ScreenSkills focusing on budgeting and scheduling, managing cost managers and post production paperwork. 273 people undertook these courses, with us running a total of 29 bitesize courses across three iterations.
We offered some free webinars throughout the year. These included Setting up Shoots in the Middle East, Setting up Shoots in Latin America and Travel & Accommodation Management for Film & TV which are available to rewatch here. We continued to work with Directors UK, running three sessions on how to get the best out of being a mentor and mentee for Directors UK as part of their Inspire mentoring scheme. I was also asked back to run a 3-part training course on creating a budget & schedule for unscripted TV for TRC as part of the ScreenSkills Series Producer Programme, which is always a joy to run.
Paul Hawke-Williams from Gorilla Academy and Viki Carter in White City to run the Post Production for Production Managers for ITV Academy - February 2026
I continued to work closely with the NFTS, running a two day course for ‘Budgeting & Scheduling for Unscripted TV’ and a two day course on ‘The Role of Production Assistant (Unscripted)’. Plus I was excited to create some bespoke training for their YouTube Creator Incubator, running sessions on ‘Budgeting & Scheduling’ and ‘Risk Assessments’, focused towards YouTube content creators.
Similarly, the BFBS Academy (British Forces Broadcasting Service) asked me back to run a 4hr CV and cover letter clinic for the trainees on their creative media production course. This offered tips and examples of how to write an effective CV and cover letter for the TV and Film industry. This was followed up by one to one sessions with the 8 trainees to provide bespoke advice on additional CV improvements.
I got to work with Gorilla Academy to create and run a two day course on ‘Post Production for Unscripted Production Teams’ which we ran in person at their post facilities in the centre of Cardiff. We’ve also loved working with ITV Academy to develop some bespoke production courses, including ‘Finance for HoPs’ and ‘Post Production for Production Managers’ which we ran in person at White City.
A particular highlight of the year was working with IMG to provide a bespoke Production Executive Professional Development Programme for 10 of their PEs. Run alongside modules on professional management provided by Alex Dalton from Leading Ideas, we provided two days of training on the role and responsibilities of the Production Executive, business & legal affairs and financial & operational elements. Plus we provided the PEs with an industry mentor who undertook three hours of mentoring to help them progress and thrive in their roles. We also had the opportunity to send our trainer Kate Sinden to Saudi Arabia to run Production Manager training for IMG’s team based there. So we can now officially say we have gone international!
Colman Hayes & Mikey Fleming, winners of the FÍS TV Summit 2026 Pitching Competition - February 2026
Kate Fletcher got the chance to run an expanded version of our Developing Great Formats for Unscripted TV course for the National Talent Academies. It was such an exciting one as she helped the trainees develop their ideas and hone their pitches ahead of the FÍS TV Summit 2026 Pitching Competition. Congratulations to winners Colman Hayes & Mikey Fleming. Their pitch for ‘The Mayor of Comedytown’ blew the judges away and they deservedly took home the €1,000 prize.
Our busy training schedule resulted in us training a total of 519 trainees across 59 courses. We also had 140 participants join our free webinars. I managed to squeeze in 11 one to ones with those looking to start or transfer into the industry as well as very experienced freelancers looking to refresh their CVs or cover letters or move into different roles within the industry. Our newsletter subscription grew to 1,883 individuals and our combined social media is now at 1,575 followers. Of course, we couldn’t have done it all without your support. So if you took part in training or a one to one session or kept an eye on our newsletters and social media, we owe you a massive thank you!!
I’m really proud of our stats for our 6th year, especially as was finishing my maternity leave for my second child Rosie, who is 13 months old now. I’m so proud that we are continuing to grow year on year and that we get to work with returning clients and new clients, plus amazing individuals which makes our work so rewarding.
Kate Sinden travelled to Saudi Arabia to run a 2-day Production Manager course for IMG - February 2026
I want to give a huge thanks to our team who help us keep succeeding year on year. Our amazing trainers – Viki Carter, Anna Roberts, Matthew Harrisson, Kate Fletcher and Kate Sinden. Plus my husband Leigh Way, who keeps things running behind the scenes with our newsletters, social media posts and course listing/advertising and also looks after our two children when he’s not on the computer.
So what’s coming up for year 7? We’ll be continuing to run our full day and short courses through our company. A big difference for us though, will be that our courses will decrease to running twice per year. This is to ensure we can accommodate bespoke courses and to practice what I keep saying I’ll do, of spending a bit more time with my young children who are 13 months old and almost 4 years old.
We’ll still be working with ScreenSkills to provide free training through the short courses and have two brand new courses starting from July – Essential Kit Knowledge for PCs and PMs and Post Production for Production Teams. We’ll also keep providing free webinars throughout the year. Don’t forget that you may be eligible for a bursary or funding to attend any of our paid courses, so do take a look here if you are interested in joining. We also now offer a 10% discount off our training for members of BECTU, Production Base, Talent Manager (Pro & Premium members), DUK, PMA, RTS and BAFTA.
Viki Carter at White City running Finance for HoPs for ITV Academy - November 2025
We’re working with companies such as IMG, ITV Academy, National Talent Academies and NFTS to provide bespoke training courses to meet their needs. Do let us know if there is any training or webinars you would like to see and we’ll see what we can do. Also, if you are a trainer, or are looking to start training, do get in touch as we are always on the lookout for new courses to run. And a reminder that it can feel quite lonely running a small training company, or starting up as a trainer, so I have a private Facebook group where we can all come together to continue share tips or ask questions. The link is here is you’d like to join, or forward it onto someone else.
I’m also looking into offering mentoring sessions* soon. These will be a bit different to our regular one to one career advice sessions. They will focus more on certain goals you want to achieve which I’m excited to support individuals with. I’ll be offering 3 x 1hr sessions or 6 x 1hr sessions depending on individuals goals. (*I’m a level 3 qualified coach & mentor). I’m hoping to launch these in the next few months, and places will be limited.
Don’t forget you can find all of the information on our training courses by visiting - https://www.mediacareeradvice.co.uk/training-talks and taking a look at our training calendar, or each individual training course page. Check if you are eligible for external funding here - https://www.mediacareeradvice.co.uk/external-funding Plus you can find out more about what one to one sessions we offer here - https://www.mediacareeradvice.co.uk/one-to-ones Or catch up on our previous webinars here - https://www.mediacareeradvice.co.uk/videos
Thank you all again for your support!
Hannah Gosney, Company Director & Trainer