BBC and Broadcast join forces for Expert Women training day

Following Broadcast’s long running campaign to increase the number of expert women on screen, the Academy is holding the event on 18 January for women keen to appear on television, radio and online.

The initiative seeks to find more female contributors from fields including business, politics, science, technology and engineering.

Broadcasters acknowledge these are predominantly male- dominated, making it harder to achieve a gender balance.

The training day, which could be the first in a series subject to demand, will allow women to meet leading media professionals.

High-profile programme-makers are expected to give masterclasses, with other sessions focusing on hands-on TV training and studio based workshops.

Broadcast’s Expert Women campaign has highlighted the gap between the representation of male and female experts aided by ongoing monthly research. This includes findings by City University that showed that over a two week period in June, BBC’s News At Ten had nine times the number of male to female experts.

More than 1,500 people have signed Broadcast’s petition, at www.change.org, to urge broadcasters to improve the representation, while broadcasters including Channel 4 News and Sky News have signed the Expert Women Pledge at www.broadcastnow.co.uk.

Applicants for the training day are required to email a CV and a couple of paragraphs stating their unique selling point to expertwomen@bbc.co.uk by Friday 16 November.