The creative industries generate around £108 billion a year and employ over 2.3 million people in the country. But despite this, the creative industries are facing significant challenges with skills gaps and shortages.

BOA Stage and Screen Production students are bridging the gap and providing key skills for the creative venues and companies around Birmingham and beyond.

Now the academy are looking for their next intake of the industry's future talent at their open day on 17 January.

From taking on stage management roles at The Old Rep Theatre’s Christmas musical Peter Pan, to learning technical skills for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Black Sabbath at the Birmingham Hippodrome, they are learning how to engage and work professionally within the creative industries.

The students, alongside Birmingham indie film company Threewise Entertainment, participated and won the Sci-fi London 48-hour Film Challenge. The competition was to write, shoot, and edit a finished five-minute-long film, in just two days.

The academy focuses on learning through industry experience alongside academic studies in state-of-the-art facilities in the centre of Birmingham.

It provides an industry-led approach to developing the skills and experience of young people who are passionate about working in film TV, online and theatre production.

The free academy is for post-16 students from Birmingham and across the region seeking top qualifications, up-to-date practical training, and firsthand experience, which can propel the first steps to a career in tandem with a traditional academic 6th form education.

Designed to spark talent and creativity, the BOA curriculum is made up of a series of pathways. These include; broadcast, film & content, production arts & stage management, technical theatre & live events, and writing, directing & screen-craft. BOA Stage and Screen have just released a brand-new course, make-up & hair for theatre, tv and film.

Places to study are offered following participation in a series of workshops, designed to assess aptitude for a preferred specialism. If you have the raw talent - no matter your previous experience - there is a strong chance that BOA is for you.

Students embrace and create real world projects where students can lead the way and learn first-hand from the best in the industry.

Following their two-year course, they often go onto higher education, apprenticeships or straight into full time employment.

Students will be well equipped to pursue careers in film, television, video, sound, experience (VR, AR, 360), visual communication, digital media, marketing & promotion, live media events, and other technical media-related disciplines.

With growing technological advances and more production companies moving to the midlands, students at BOA Stage and Screen will help bridge the skills shortage in the production industry, both in Birmingham and further afield.

You can find out more about BOA Stage and Screen Production Academy at boa-stageandscreen.co.uk

The open day for Stage and Screen Production Academy is on 17 January.