Jack Sargeant 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 report detailing 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.