91Èȱ¬

Today the 91Èȱ¬ announces the creation of the 91Èȱ¬ Training & Development Academy.

The academy will bring together all the 91Èȱ¬'s training and development activities into three colleges – the existing College of Journalism, a new College of Production, and a College for Leadership and Management.

The new academy replaces the 91Èȱ¬'s existing and award-winning training and development activities and is due to go live towards the end of 2009.

Anne Morrison will be the first Director of the Academy.

She will be instrumental in setting up and launching the academy and will be responsible for the creation and management of the overall learning and development strategy for the 91Èȱ¬.

She and her team will also be responsible for managing external relationships with partners, regulators and other training and development providers, and supporting the work of the colleges.

Anne joined the 91Èȱ¬ in 1981 as a general production trainee, progressing to become Controller of Documentaries and Contemporary Factual, overseeing programmes such as The Secret Policeman and the re-launch of Top Gear.

She has been Controller Network Production since 2006, working with Nations & Regions and Vision to grow network television across all genres through the implementation of the Network Supply Review.

Anne is currently Chair of the Production Training Board and sits on the Learning Board. She also chairs Vision's Talent and Training Forum.

Mark Byford, 91Èȱ¬ Deputy Director-General, said: "The 91Èȱ¬ Academy is a major new initiative in bringing together all training and development activities of the 91Èȱ¬ across journalism, production and leadership.

"Anne Morrison is the right person to lead the academy – a brilliant and proven leader of highly creative programme-making teams; passionate and knowledgeable about training and skills development; and outward-looking in recognising the need for the 91Èȱ¬ to be an effective training partner across the industry.

"I'm delighted she will be the leader of the academy and Chair of the Learning Board."

Anne Morrison said: "Throughout my production career I have been passionate about training and developing staff, so to be given the chance to launch and run the new 91Èȱ¬ Academy is hugely exciting.

"Building on the great work already done, I am looking forward to creating a world-class organisation which will benefit all our staff and, through partnerships, help support the wider industry."

The remit of the three colleges will be:

• The College of Journalism will bring together all current initiatives for the College of Journalism, the World Service and Nations & Regions to provide a single and integrated home for all journalism training and development. It will continue to deliver editorial standards, legal training and core journalist craft skills as well as leading on international training.
• A new College of Production will focus on core editorial, creativity and production skills, together with production management, health and safety and multiplatform training and development.
• The College of Leadership and Management will focus on building leadership skills across the corporation; it will also take the lead in the development of business skills and professional services and will be a critical part in the 91Èȱ¬'s approach to talent management and succession planning.

The academy will focus on providing high-quality training to all 91Èȱ¬ staff. The 91Èȱ¬ hopes to further develop partnerships with the wider media industry and make an extensive range of training available. This will build on the success of our Safeguarding Trust course of which 20,000 modules have been completed so far by non-91Èȱ¬ staff.

Network Supply remains a high priority for the 91Èȱ¬, and the transitional arrangements for Anne's role on this important project will be announced in due course.

91Èȱ¬ Press Office