Cross-pollinating skills: The power of versatility in the creative sector

For aspiring creatives, there is much to be gained by building a broad range of skills and experience. This can future-proof their career and make their time in the industry more productive and rewarding. 

As a young person imagining a future career, it’s common to have a vision of a single, particular dream job. The reality, though, is that we usually fill several roles over the course of our careers – and all of these roles form part of our professional growth. 

A useful approach to career development is therefore – instead of training for a single job to develop a range of skills for your chosen industry. This is especially true in the case of the creative sector, which is highly collaborative and requires numerous capabilities to be deployed in combination.

The career path of a creative worker will often see them performing many roles. For instance, many aspiring creatives dream of becoming a film director. But if one speaks to successful movie directors, they often say they came to their role via a circuitous route, working across different parts of the creative industry. 

Holistic vision

“To be an effective director, you need to have a clear understanding of every aspect of movie production, from acting, to lighting, to music and editing,” says MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) West Africa Director Atinuke Babatunde. “So, anyone hoping to become a director, should look to learn all the skills of TV and film production not just directing.”

Atinuke says because filmmaking is such a multi-disciplinary field, the MTF training course also teaches a wide range of skills, including cinematography, editing, audio production, as well as storytelling. 

The MTF provides students with entrepreneurship skills as well as industry networking opportunities. Students get to engage with industry leaders during their course, and after graduation, many alumni go on to launch their own production companies, doing work for established industry platforms like Showmax and Africa Magic. 

“Over 50% of our alumni have their own production companies, where they are hiring and empowering other people and so adding to the economic footprints of their various nations,” says Atinuke.

Beyond the formal training courses through the Academies, MTF offers mid-career masterclasses and internships, as well as the MTF Portal, a platform for sharing collaboration and employment opportunities.  

Training in various disciplines not only gives creatives a more well-rounded skillset, it offers career resilience. A versatile film professional has more job opportunities – critical in a sector where work is often freelance, and episodic. 

But creatives would do well to take an even broader view of the industry they work in. The same skills that can be applied in producing a TV series can also be useful in the world of advertising, in online media, or in corporate communications. This makes for richer, more interesting work, and drives the development of the entire creative industry.

“Film, television and media-production skills are relevant to numerous other industries,” says Atinuke. “If you look at social media, that requires TV and film production abilities. So do corporate communications, marketing and public relations. Anyone who has learned the diverse skills that TV production requires can enter these fields too.”

This need for diverse skills in the creative sector is apt. After all, this is what creative art itself is about: cross-pollinating ideas from one place to another and combining thoughts in exciting new ways.

Young professionals who approach their careers in this spirit – as a kind of multifaceted, creative work – may well produce the most precious of achievements: a well-lived life.

To learn more about the MultiChoice Talent Factory, click here, aspiring filmmakers can apply here for the 2025 academic year.