At first glance, the British film industry seems to have every right to be feeling good about itself. Love Actually has grossed £200m in box offices worldwide, and Calendar Girls has brought in another £100m. UK films are the most popular foreign movies where it matters most commercially: Bend It Like Beckham, Johnny English and 28 Days Later have proved hits with US audiences.

But for every Love Actually there is a Sex Lives of the Potato Men, and while the former's box office receipts might soften the blow of the critical savaging of the latter, it is clear that, in many respects, the few notable successes have come about more by luck than design.

This week a massive £50m campaign is being launched to tap Britain's top talent and to expand the pool of entrants into film-making in Britain. The scheme will improve qualifications and skills, and equip its graduates to compete not only with Hollywood, but with expanding movie industries in Asia and Europe.

The Big Future - the UK Film Skills Strategy - is being unveiled by Skillsnet, the government-created sector skills council for broadcast, film, video and interactive media, together with the UK Film Council.

Stewart Till, deputy chairman of both organisations and chief executive of United International Pictures, says the five-year plan will make skills the main selling point of the British film industry.

Even in its heyday, when the UK was renowned worldwide for its craft and technical skills, there was no career structure to speak of. Workers tended to learn their trade "on the job", usually starting off as a runner or errand-boy, and working their way up.

But where Britain has been weakest, Till says, has been in the business side of the industry. It has lacked people to negotiate deals, control production and distribute films. There is also a shortage of set designers and film editors.

The strategy will cost £10m a year over five years. Two-thirds of the money will come from the Film Council with lottery money and film companies making up most of the rest through training levies.

"We have carried out a mapping exercise, and we realised there was very little coordination and relevant training and education, and that, predictably, the industry was worse off for it," Till says.

"We realised that there were thousands of people who had talents and much to offer who were not getting in because the whole process was just too chaotic. We were losing them to other industries, when they could easily have done the job better than the people we already have. That situation could not continue."

The widely held suspicions about getting work in film have some basis. "People get in through nepotism and their contacts," he says. "That might sound bad but actually it is not so much corrupt as chaotic. If you know someone who can get you in you will have an automatic advantage. The film industry is a people industry, and as such it is only as good as the quality of the people it attracts and recruits.

"At the moment, if you want a career in the film industry - and, let's face it, it is a desirable and attractive industry - it is very hard to know where to start because the entry points are illogical and irrational."

Since last September, when its proposals were first revealed, Skillset has been working with colleges and universities to set up a series of screen academies, specialist schools where students will be able to learn the various aspects of the industry. Bidding for the courses is going out to tender. The first intake of students is to be recruited for September 2005.

The successful institutions are likely to be those already offering established courses and willing to cooperate with its partner organisation. "We plan to endorse or kite-mark courses at around 15 institutions, and set up five academies on top of that," Till says. "We will work with them, providing bursaries, internships, mentoring and guest lecturers from within the industry."

The courses will cover the spectrum of skills needed for a successful career in film-making, ranging from screen writing to sound engineering and distribution of the finished product, but each will focus on different aspects to avoid duplication.

A film business academy offering two-year masters degrees to people who want to work on the commercial side of the industry will be set up at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. A parallel postgraduate course in distribution, exhibition and marketing is still in the planning and will also be put out to tender.

In all, the initiatives will together turn out up to 200 graduates and postgraduates every year - barely enough to sustain the film industry, but better than any existing arrangements.

With an ageing, largely self-employed workforce of 50,000, who tend to stay in the industry for 20 years, it would take around 2,500 new entrants to maintain numbers, Till says. "Obviously not all of them want to study at university and this should not be seen as the only way in.

"However, if we could attract those 200 people, who might have otherwise gone into careers in the City or advertising, then we will be going in the right direction and making a huge difference. Having a successful industry is 50% to do with the quality of the film, and 50% to do with distribution."

Another central plank of the strategy will be the creation of a film trainee network to talent-spot potential trainees and offer a one-stop advice shop on courses and education for people already carving out a career in the industry.

The Skillset Guiding Lights scheme will recruit 50 high-profile professionals, including actors, writers, directors and producers, to mentor students and new recruits.

And £600,000 will be spent in the first year on continuing professional development and providing short courses and bursaries for existing workers to improve their skills in key areas. Increasingly, rapid technological change has made it difficult for existing working to find the time or money to improve their skills.

But could a brain drain of talent educated here then leave for the bright lights of Hollywood? "There is a slight danger of that, but we already have cross-fertilisation of everyone from actors to executives because this is such a global industry," Till says.

"Certainly I would expect many students to do their internships in Europe and the United States so they can experience practices and methods from a global perspective. I cannot imagine that 200 graduates will immediately head for Hollywood, but certainly their careers will take them there and bring them back again at some point.

"Hollywood will always be pre-eminent, but it is within our gift to get the silver medal in the global industry and shorten that gap between our two industries. We should be aiming to be a comfortable second and well away from the rest of the pack."