Colleges as Anchors in their Space

model sustainable growth. They also now recognise that a hightech

economy is rapidly moving down the M4, from London

into Bristol and onwards to Wales. The college has, therefore,

established a close dialogue with the city of Newport, moving the

regeneration thrust away from its previous nostalgic view of the

city's maritime past towards sustainability, developing high-order

technical and craft skills not just for newly developing industries,

as a National Network College, or as a National Catapult,13 but

also in improving the quality of those social industries that

also underpin the resurgent community: care, restaurants and

retail. Lacey has also helped influence the Welsh Government

to develop the National Composites Centre at Ebbw Vale, where

the college has launched an Advanced Materials Centre.14 It also

played a leading role in attracting the Construcciones y Auxiliar

de Ferrocarriles (CAF) railways assembly and testing plant to

Newport and enabled graduate engineers to upskill at the Bristol

Advanced Engineering Centre. Technicians with a background in

traditional fabrication and welding can now be retrained to work

with composites. The college is helping to grow a regional network

of competence which embraces high-order engineering skills with

niche digital industries such as mobile phone manufacture and

cyber security.

Lacey describes his context as 'regional, but with a lot of

parochialism'. No doubt that statement sums up much of the UK,

but in the case of Coleg Gwent it is in a sound position to shape

a successful outcome. He has been persistent in confronting

the poor understanding of colleges by local government leaders,

both at political and executive level, to the point now where

the college sits at the heart of the regional regeneration debate.

He has marshalled and established an understanding that

skills at levels 3, 4 and 5 are crucial for sustaining a viable local

economy. Lacey sits on Cardiff Capital Region Education and

Skills Board and SE Region principal's group (of five), and the

(Accessed 5 March 2019)

(Accessed 4 March 2019).

Index