At last night’s Digital Futures Summit on The Business of Australia’s Digital Future, the CEO of the AFTRS, Nell Greenwood, introduced a new five-year plan for the national screen and broadcast school.
As AFTRS approaches its 50th anniversary next year, the five-year plan, Creating the Future, reinforces AFTRS’ commitment to three principles: National Reach, Excellence and Sustainability.
The National Reach principle commits AFTRS to embedding First Nations culture, knowledge and values across the School, creating opportunities for under-represented talent across Australia to fulfil their creative dreams and goals, and providing flexible models of delivery that allow its learning and resources to be accessible to people through both online and face-to-face learning across Australia.
The five-year plan defines the second principle, Excellence, as AFTRS serving and enriching the creative community and generating the new knowledges the screen and broadcast industry needs to stay at the forefront of global innovation and best practice. AFTRS will work hand in hand with industry partners across Australia to provide future-looking learning experiences that offer pathways to lifelong careers in the screen and broadcast industries.
National Reach and Excellence require the School to be sustainable, for staff, students and the industry AFTRS serves. The principle of Sustainability places humans at the heart of everything the School does, creating a future that is full of possibility for creative growth, innovation and connection.
Greenwood says, “As AFTRS’ 50th birthday approaches, we have been thinking hard about 
what it means to be the national screen and broadcast school. It always strikes me as such a beautiful and powerful idea that this school was created by national funds, by the people of Australia, for the pursuit of creative excellence.
“That bi-partisan act of parliament back in 1973 means that Australians can turn on the television, or the radio, pick up an iPhone or go to the movies, and access world-leading Australian screen, audio and broadcast stories that do the important work great stories do: entertaining, transporting, challenging, connecting and, sometimes, transforming us – because good stories matter and they can change things.”
AFTRS Chair Russel Howcroft says, “After the last couple of years, the need for these good stories and the skilled, reflective, daring creators from across Australia who make them, has never been more urgent. And, AFTRS’ purpose of delivering world-leading creative education across Australia has never been clearer.”