Transforming local communities - translating academic expertise into CPD
20 February 2025
South Wales is reinventing itself as a hub of expertise in important growth areas and drives local innovation across sectors.
We are a key partner, translating academic research and degree content into meaningful practical training, partnering with organisations to offer discounted places, which in turn benefits the local community, and developing exceptional facilities to foster innovation and collaboration.
Global challenges can be addressed locally. For instance, our work with the School of Geography and Planning to create a Digital Planning workshop for public-sector practitioners in Wales and England explored how digital tools can address challenges in the planning system and drive its digital transformation. This course was supported by RTPI Cymru; to maximise local impact, we prioritised course places for planning professionals in Wales, ensuring that insights gained would directly enhance local services.
We will be more visible and present in diverse communities, allowing knowledge to flow in both directions, sharing our spaces and resources. We will be distinctly of Cardiff and Wales in all that we do, through our outlook, teams, investments, facilities, partnerships, collaborations and ecosystems.
Similarly, leveraging expertise in fields like palliative care to develop CPD activities for medical professionals can contribute valuable insights to debates such as the Assisted Dying Bill.
Another global grand challenge that we are tackling at a local level is Generative AI and how to harness AI to support organisations such as the NHS, public services and Welsh Government. Working in collaboration with the Centre for Digital Public Services, who are located alongside our team in sbarc | spark, we created a pilot course with a view to rolling out content across the Welsh public sector. As AI capabilities improve and evolve, we will be able to provide further bespoke courses using expertise from academics across the university.
Following the pilot course, which was led by the university's Professor Omer Rana, the centre has commissioned two further courses.
We collaborate with local organisations to secure grants and funding to enable local companies and individuals to gain new skills or retrain in key areas. In partnership with Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) and Cardiff and Vale College, we supported the CSconnected cluster and enhanced regional expertise by providing 128 funded places on CPD courses in Cleanrooms, Compound Semiconductor Electronics, and Compound Semiconductor Photonics. Funding was from the Cluster Development and Growth Programme (CDGP), jointly funded by Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) and UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF).
We also secured additional funding from the extension of the successful Strength in Places Fund (SIPF) project to develop and pilot a fast-track integration programme for engineers from related sectors, to be delivered in 2025. This intense training experience will be invaluable to attract engineering talent into the sector at a critical time of forecasted growth, and will provide important reskilling opportunities for employees affected by redundancy.
The CSconnected project has a significant and positive economic and social impact on Cardiff and Wales; we are building strength-in-places through advanced manufacturing, and driving significant progress on the CCR Investment Zone.
Watch a testimonial from a recent delegate on the Introduction to compound semiconductor electronics
This year, we’ve developed our existing relationships with research units, broadening our role in their CPD output. For example, DECIPHer (Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health Improvement), based in sbarc | spark, delivers an annual suite of CPD courses. We supported delivery, sharpening the customer journey, refining communications and further improving the booking experience.
We continued our successful collaboration with the School of Law and Politics, integrating an additional two CPD programmes into our course management system, including the Magistrate's Court Qualification. To enhance the customer experience, we streamlined the journey for greater efficiency and developed bilingual email communications for each stage of the Expert Witness process, thus reducing administrative workload and ensuring full compliance with University governance.
Training the School of Law and Politics team was another key focus. We designed a comprehensive training schedule, including guidance documents, instructional videos, and written processes to support their transition to the new system.
Contact us
Interested in how we can create practical, research-based CPD for your organisation? Contact our friendly team for an initial chat.
