Creating a Wales that connects people, communities, businesses and opportunities has never been so important – or possible. So what do we need to do to create that connectivity? Leigh Hughes and Rob O’Dwyer of CCR explore what’s being done with Heather Myers of Business News Wales …

The Venture ‘Talent Leaders Talking’ series gets to the very heart of where we stand in terms of the skillsets, employability, opportunities and potential we have in our region - in this feature, we talk to Grant Santos, Principal/CEO of Educ8 Training, discovering the many dimensions of ‘Where Are We?’ and ‘What’s Next?’ as we move into the fourth industrial age.

The past fortnight has seen a number of new and novel skills initiatives unveiled in the universities, colleges, schools - and even nurseries - of our region, with Cardiff Met launching a world-class aviation degree … USW announcing an innovative Incubator Hub based on its Newport campus …  Kier partnering with Think Air on a high-impact STEM outreach programme … the Welsh language Si-Lwli nursery in Cardiff providing bilingual apprenticeships to its employees … and, further west, Pembrokeshire College collaborating with global energy companies to deliver a clean energy career journey …

With more young people than ever starting up a business in the UK, it was tremendous to see four young Welsh Entrepreneurs announced as winners in this year’s Young Innovator Awards - the Innovate UK programme for 18-to-30 year olds that’s co-funded by Cardiff Capital Region and fully supported by the Venture Skills & Talent hub. Abbie Lawrence, Beren Kayali, Christian Berger and Matthew Richmond have each won the coveted Young Innovator Award for their ingenious new business projects - with these Welsh winners joining 59 other young people who are looking to change the world through their ground-breaking innovations.

Transforming our infrastructure, connectivity and mode of transport is absolutely critical to the sustainability and future success of Southeast Wales - and in this illuminating update, Cllr Huw David, Chair of the CCR Regional Transport Authority, enlightens us on the ‘hard yards’ made, the milestones already reached; and the shape of things that are about to come … 

On November 1st we were extremely excited to take on our first cohort of graduates into the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal team. They have all come from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds but are all united on one thing with one objective in common - wanting to add value and contribute to achieving the vison of the CCR and do their bit to create greater economic prosperity throughout our region.

For the last five years, Innovate UK’s ‘Women in Innovation’ campaign has shone a spotlight on the pioneering female entrepreneurs who have set out to tackle some of the biggest societal, economic and environmental challenges we face - from climate change to cleaner transport and better healthcare - creating a collaborative community of female role models, sharing knowledge and encouraging entrepreneurial growth for women throughout the UK.      

Last week we began to detail The Cardiff Capital Region ‘Five for Five’: the five key priority areas that will be hallmarks of CCR’s evolution over the next five years.

As we move out of the pandemic, it would be easy to talk change but unconsciously slip back into the ‘same old’. That is simply not an option for CCR; and even if it was, it wouldn’t be a particularly wise route to take. As we’ve seen in previous “Reimagining the Region “articles, the Pre-Covid CCR was a wonderful place to live and work for many; and a far-from-perfect-place for many others. A region characterised by an extraordinary history and huge potential for the future, with much to cherish and be proud of - and much to change and improve. CCR came into being to address the geographical inequalities, attract more of the ‘right’ inward investment, strengthen our foundational economy and make public investment work better right across our region. Those challenges still remain.