The UK’s National Film And Television School (NFTS) is teaming with pay-TV broadcaster Sky to create a new course called digital content & formula which will provide a job for one graduate at Sky.       

The 12-month diploma course will take place at both the NFTS and at Sky’s offices from September 2014. According to the NFTS, tutors will be drawn from leading multi-platform projects including Got To Dance, Million Pound Drop, The X Factor, Misfits and Embarrassing Bodies.

The course will be aimed at teaching students how to create linear extensions to TV programmes, feature films and other formats in an effort to expand audiences.  They will put together standalone digital projects and work alongside students from the NFTS’ documentary, comedy and television entertainment departments.  

Sky will offer several scholarships for the new course through its new emerging talent initiative Sky Academy. Details will be announced in February 2014.

“We’re launching this course together in recognition that the film and television industry needs people who have ‘interactive’ and ‘new media’ skills in order to maximise the potential of their films and television programmes and formats across platforms,” said Nik Powell, NFTS director.

The NFTS and Sky have worked closely together for 20 years, most recently on the NFTS broadcast production diploma course that launched in January 2013. The broadcaster awarded six course graduates paid contracts even thought it originally only said it would award one.

“At Sky we understand the value of building skills and nurturing talent,” said Emma Lloyd, director of corporate business development at Sky. “We look forward to sharing the passion and expertise of Sky’s own people with students and ensuring that anyone attending this course leaves with a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed in TV’s rapidly changing digital ecosystem.”