🎙️ Broadcast is at a turning point. The broadcast industry is facing a well-documented challenge: an age and skills gap. According to the World Economic Forum and TVRev, experienced broadcast engineers are retiring faster than replacements can be trained. Many broadcasters report difficulties finding young professionals with hands-on knowledge of legacy systems, RF workflows, or even live broadcast compliance, a critical issue for both public and commercial networks. The new generation brings valuable digital-native skills, but often lacks grounding in core broadcast fundamentals. 🔧 How can broadcasters bridge the gap before capability walks out the door? Here are 4 suggestions: 1. Upskill, Upskill, Upskill I've said it before, I'll say it again. The new talent breaking into the market is hungry to learn, and the talent leaving the market is keen to apply themselves as much as possible, and work hard as they have been doing. Invest in everyone, new and existing, in upskilling in new technology and you will have a workforce that takes care of the skill gap issues for you though natural knowledge sharing and collaboration. 2. Retention Through Role Redesign 🛠️ Training Junior staff and new talent to the industry is costly and time consuming. Instead of full retirement, offer phased or repurposed roles: ▪ Part-time advisory engineer after retirement- retain the knowledge that has just left through part-time training roles for the Junior staff. Go beyond traditional "Shadowing". ▪ Special projects (e.g., archive digitisation, compliance overhauls)- essential roles that may be hard to dedicate full time resources to, but suit skilled flexible workers. This keeps critical expertise in-house and gives senior staff purpose and flexibility. 3. Retrain Veterans in Digital-First Workflows Don’t just train young staff, reverse-train your legacy experts in OTT platforms, newsroom automation, AI metadata tagging, and remote cloud production. Create a two-way street of learning. They have invaluable knowledge and skills, and are an often underutilised tool in advancing a company's technology capabilities. 4. Revise Talent Pipelines with School & University Partnerships 🎓 Work with institutions offering media tech programs. Co-develop curriculars based on real broadcast needs. Work with the source of talent coming into the industry early in their education to engage and excite the upcoming workforce in the new generation of technology. We probably don’t need another influencer, but we definitely need another IP Engineer! Final Thought: This isn’t about "young vs old." It’s about building broadcast teams with both depth and adaptability. The broadcasters that succeed over the next 5–10 years will be those that treat cross-generational training not as an afterthought, but as a core strategic asset. If you’re exploring ways to modernise workforce planning, I'd be glad to help map the path forward. 👇
Crucial point - previous generation knows perfectly analog basics which new generations will be lacking. Both teams are needed nowadays to move further with the technology
Hey Austin, Can you share a link to the work from World Economic Forum in this topic? Thanks
Great insight totally agreed
2 is a great idea to meet the growth needs of our youngest team members, especially in local media operations that don't have the scale of a corporate org structure where an upward mobility path is easier to carve out. I'd also add Armed Forces to 4; Veterans bring a maturity, work ethic and innate understanding of media's "sense of urgency". They can be force multipliers on lean, technical teams.
Totally agree with you.
Operations Manager at RaceTech | ex-DHL
2moAbsolutely agree, Austin. I’d even take it a step further - we should be doing more to leverage retirees as consultants, in whatever format makes sense for employers. Inviting experienced staff to stay involved in a part-time or advisory capacity can be invaluable for knowledge transfer and smoother transitions.