Funding approvals
2023-24 Skills Development Fund

• Costume Supervisor Pathway Program - Australian Production Design Guild (APDG): Established in 2009, the APDG represents designers and their associates in screen, live performance, events and digital production across Australia. Through this funding, APDG will receive support for their Costume Supervisor Pathway Program - a comprehensive training initiative to address the need for costume supervisors with the expertise to oversee large-scale productions. This will be achieved by upskilling three mid-career costume department practitioners in a new assistant costume supervisor position through a focused mentorship within a production, guided by a highly experienced costume supervisor. This dedicated position offers a specialised training opportunity, creating a pathway for potential costume supervisors, bridging the gap between existing roles and meeting the industry's increasing demand for local supervisors on large-scale, high-budget, and international productions.
• Return to Paradise - BBC Studios Productions Australia: BBC Studios Productions Australia aims to grow and support ongoing and fit-for-purpose skills development - creating opportunities for project attachments seeking future employment to leverage their participation on this project for subsequent future series of Return to Paradise and other BBC Studios Productions Australia projects. The core of the company’s Skills Training and Development Plan focuses on mentoring, shadowing and on-the-job training, which is paramount to the success of providing crew with a platform to learn and up-skill. Through this funding, BBC Studios Productions Australia aims to decrease the skills shortage currently being faced Australia-wide in the film and television industry while increasing opportunities for attachments to be employed either as part of the HOD’s team or in a similar role on other Australian productions. 
• Post Production Leadership Initiative - EndemolShine Australia: EndemolShine Australia is a television and digital production company with a focus on the production and post-production of unscripted and scripted content for domestic and international television broadcast. This funding will support EndemolShine’s Post Production Leadership Initiative, which aims to offer practical leadership mentoring, including targeted workshops and on-the-job guidance, to aid individuals in transitioning from storytelling roles to managerial positions as the industry experiences a shortage in executive producers and supervising producers. Through this initiative EndemolShine looks to support the needs of emerging post executive producers and supervising post producers as they prepare for senior positions across post production management roles on a number of upcoming series.
• Practical Production Office, Locations and Costume Department Skills Training - Invisible Boys Pty Ltd: With a boom in WA-based screen production activity, there is an opportunity to train additional production office, locations and costume department personnel. This funding aims to support the upcoming production of the Stan/Banijay 10 x 28-minute series Invisible Boys through Practical Production Skills Training – teaching and guiding a production assistant, an assistant locations manager and a standby costume assistant to put into practice the skill sets they need to create a strong foundation for future career pathways.
• Guck Academy - GUCK: Based in Victoria and led by company directors Hayley Percy (Wiradjuri) and Kati Elizabeth, GUCK have spent the past four years heavily investing into professional development, pre-production, community collaboration and consultation. GUCK currently employs eight First Nations on-going staff and a wide range of additional First Nations casual staff and contractors, and are committed to supporting people from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups. Through this funding, GUCK will be expanding their commitment to investing in professional skills, leadership skills and creative cultural practice through Guckster Academy, to assist the needs of their team while enabling wellbeing, connection to culture and empowerment as they work to create Australia’s first Aboriginal-led mobile game.
• Iron Crab Level Up Initiative - Chaos Theory Games: Chaos Theory operates as a for-purpose business built upon a passion for games with a vision to enhance quality of life and inspire a more sustainable future through the magic of play. Over the past 12 years, Chaos Theory has worked to cultivate a team capable of realising this vision and launched over 150 games and interactive experiences designed to captivate, inspire, and transform players. With this support, Chaos Theory’s Iron Crab Level Up Initiative looks to equip their team with the skills necessary to excel in upcoming game productions including Crab God. This program will empower Chaos Theory’s gamemakers - ensuring they can meet the unique challenges of these projects and, in the broader context, contribute to the growth and innovation of the Australian video game industry.