Coleg Menai Hosts Gogledd Creadigol at its New Campus

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Jane Lambert

Gogledd Creadigol or Creative North Wales describes itself on its Facebook page as "a network for the creative digital industries in North Wales".  Its aim is to encourage networking and collaboration between the digital creative companies and further and higher education institutions in order to secure a prosperous future for the industry in North Wales.

I first learned about the network on 21 April 2011 when I took part in a dialogue with Carwyn Edwards on Copyright and ICT organized by North Wales Tech and North Wales Creative.  Copies of my slides for that event can be downloaded from Slideshare.  I wrote about it in Gogledd Creadigol on 11 May 2021. I subsequently attended a joint meeting of North Wales Creative and Creative Wales at the Galeri arts centre in Caernarfon on 9 Nov 2022 (see North Wales Creative meets Creative Wales 11 Nov 2022).  I also attended Gogledd Creadigol's Creative Digital  Awards Ceremony at Theatr Clwyd in Mold on 2 Feb 2023.

Gogledd Creadigol's most recent meeting took place on the new Bangor campus of Coleg Menai on the Parc Menai business park.  It began with a tour of the campus.  Some idea of its impressive educational and skills training facilities can be gained from the above video and the photos on Gogledd Creadigol's Facebook page.  The new Bangor campus forms part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai which is an amalgamation of Coleg Llandrillo, Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor.  The merged establishment is enormous employing 2,000 staff and teaching 21,000 students in Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Gwynedd.

After an introduction from the Chair and an update from Tom Burke there were presentations from the Federation of Small Businesses, North Wales Regional Skills Partnership, Supertemps and Cymru Creadigol.  The FSB promoted The Power of Creativity, a study of the creative industries in Wales which it had published on 24 Oct 2024.  The speaker from the Skills Partnership spoke about training in the creative sector.  One slide which stuck in my mind showed that a higher proportion of qualified persons in the creative sector in Anglesey and Gwynedd than those in Northeast Wales.  The speaker attributed that to a longer commute to the English border.  I put it to her that it was also consistent with the creation of new jobs and business opportunities at M-SParc.   She did not disagree. 

According to the FSB the turnover of the creative industries in Wales was £3.8 billion in 2022 contributing 5.3% to the nation's GDP.  Some 40% of the businesses in the sector are one-person concerns and 80% of those industries employ between 1 and 9 people.  The legal protection of brands, designs and works of art or literature is crucial to the success of those businesses.

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