MS, Minister for Culture,
Skills and Social Partnership: I am updating members on progress
made against the current Creative Skills Action Plan
(2022-2025) which delivers against the Programme for
Government commitment to establish a Creative Skills Body,
and outline planned next steps.
A Creative Skills Advisory Panel was established in May 2022 made
up of 12 industry professionals from the music, screen, games,
animation and immersive technology sectors as well as
broadcaster, training, union, higher and further education
representatives and a diversity and inclusion champion. The
Advisory Panel advised on the current Creative Skills Action Plan
identifying 10 priorities that are key in supporting the skills
needs of the creative workforce.
The Creative Skills Fund (CSF) supports projects which deliver
against one or more of the 10 identified priorities. The
first round of the CSF supported 17 projects with £1.5M of
funding. A further 17 projects are currently receiving an
additional £1.5M of funding via the second round of
CSF.
Over 27,000 individuals and over 300 companies benefitted from
projects supported by the first round of the CSF with 488
training courses delivered and 300 work experience placements
secured. We have published a reportdetailing the
highlights from the CSF1 project. A full evaluation of both
rounds will be undertaken once the current Creative Skills Fund
projects are completed at the end of March 2026. The
evaluation will assess the impact of all 34 Creative Skills
Funded projects to ascertain how well they have addressed the
skills needs of the creative sectors and to ensure the Fund is
delivering as it should.
Good progress has been made by Creative Wales in delivering
against the commitments within the current Creative Skills Action
Plan and the Creative Skills Advisory Panel continues to provide
advice on the immediate and longer-term skills needs of the
creative sector.
The Action Plan commitment to prioritise projects which can
demonstrate a partnership approach to skills support has led to
Creative Wales collaborating with many key industry stakeholders.
These include the public service broadcasters, the British Film
Institute and Screenskills on screen projects, Beacon Cymru,
Music Venue Trust and the University of South Wales on music
projects and Esports Wales, Cloth Cat Academy and Media Academy
Cymru (MAC) on games and animation project. This approach
to joint-working is avoiding unnecessary duplication and
maximises resources bringing partners together to provide clear
and transparent entry points and progression routes across all
the creative sectors.
I was pleased to visit MAC last week to witness the difference
they are making in improving grassroots access for young people
into the animation sector via their current Animeiddio project
which provides two new entry level courses BTEC Levels 2 and 3 in
animation.
The Creative Skills Action Plan is also supporting delivery of
wider Programme for Government commitments. One example
is delivery of the Young Persons Guarantee, giving everyone under
25 the offer of work, education, training, or self-employment and
the creation of 125,000 all-age apprenticeships. Creative
Wales has enabled a total of 499 paid trainee placements,
including 59 apprenticeship placements on Welsh Government funded
productions since 2020. Providing key paid on the job
training placements is ongoing with an estimated 75 paid trainee
placements provided per annum.
In addition, a number of projects are delivering against the
Action Plan's commitment to support the ambitions of Cymraeg 2050
to promote the language and increase the number of Welsh speakers
in Wales. This is ensuring training provision is promoted and
delivered via the Welsh language where possible and that those
interested in learning or improving their Welsh language skills
have the opportunity to do so. Supported projects include O'r
Sgript I'r Sinema delivered by NFTS Cymru, the Gorilla Academy's
Welsh language postproduction training and the Welsh Language
Directors project with BBC Studios. 26.5% of participants
on projects supported through the first round of the Skills Fund
were Welsh speakers. One project, The Hollow Pixel Academy,
enabled six apprentices to complete the “Welsh in the Workplace”
course with Dysgu Cymru and supported one apprentice to achieve a
GCSE in Welsh. Hollow Pixel won a Welsh Champion
Apprenticeship Employer Award for their CSF project.
The Creative Skills Advisory Panel believe that the Plan's
identified priorities remain current and relevant to addressing
the needs of the music, screen, games, animation and immersive
tech sectors and whilst progress has been made it is clear there
is still work to be done to address all of the Action Plan's
commitments.
It is therefore my intention for the current Creative Skills
Action Plan and the Creative Skills Advisory Panel to continue
until May 2026.
