With this year’s #CollegesWeek2026 theme, Skills for All, it’s a timely moment to consider how investing in people will shape the future of North Wales. The region is on the cusp of unprecedented economic opportunity, with major developments in clean energy, digital innovation and advanced technology set to transform its prospects. Yet infrastructure and investment alone will not secure lasting prosperity. In this thought piece, Grŵp Llandrillo Menai Chief Executive, Aled Jones-Griffith, argues that the true foundation of North Wales’ economic future lies in expanding skills, apprenticeships and vocational pathways - ensuring that local people are equipped to lead, benefit from and sustain the industries shaping the region’s next chapter.
North Wales stands at a transformational period in its economic history. Recent major project announcements including Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, the designation of a new AI Growth Zone, and the selection of Wylfa as the site for the UK’s first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) will offer the region unprecedented opportunities. These developments will generate billions of pounds in investment, thousands of jobs, and a re-positioning of the region as a centre of excellence for clean energy, advanced technology and digital innovation.
However, infrastructure alone does not create prosperity. Turbines, reactors and data centres do not power themselves. If North Wales is to fully benefit from this investment, greater emphasis must be placed on people. The region’s future depends on a skilled, adaptable workforce developed through further education (FE), vocational pathways, and apprenticeships at every level - including higher and degree apprenticeships.
A Transformational Economic Opportunity
Each of the major projects now emerging across North Wales reflects a shift toward high-skill, high-value industries:
- Awel y Môr strengthens the region’s renewable energy ecosystem, building on North Wales’ established role in offshore wind and marine energy.
- The AI Growth Zone has the potential to place the region at the forefront of artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and data-driven enterprise.
- The Wylfa SMR project could anchor a new generation of nuclear energy expertise, supporting the UK’s net-zero ambitions while creating long-term, skilled employment.
Together, these investments represent not only construction jobs, but sustained demand for engineers, digital specialists, project managers, technicians, data analysts, environmental scientists, advanced manufacturing professionals and further, at present, unknown specialisms.
The challenge to us in the FE sector is clear: who will fill these roles whilst ensuring we do not compromise the existing economic need of our foundation economy?
If local people are not equipped with the right skills, North Wales risks importing talent rather than generating home-grown prosperity. That is why the expansion of apprenticeships and vocational pathways is not simply desirable, it is economically strategic and essential.
The Critical Role of FE and Apprenticeships
FE colleges are uniquely positioned to respond quickly to employer needs. Unlike more traditional academic routes, vocational programmes and apprenticeships combine practical, work-based experience with technical knowledge, aligning learning directly with industry demand.
Apprenticeships, particularly higher and degree apprenticeships, are especially powerful. They:
- Enable learners to earn while they learn
- Embed education within real workplaces
- Reduce student debt burdens
- Deliver industry-specific skills from Level 2 through to Level 6 and beyond
- Support career progression into leadership and specialist roles
In sectors such as renewable energy, nuclear power and AI-enabled technologies, the blend of theory and hands-on competence is essential. Degree apprenticeships in engineering, digital technologies, data science, cyber security and energy systems could form the backbone of North Wales’ future workforce.
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai and Coleg Cambria: Anchors of Opportunities
At the heart of this skills ecosystem are Grŵp Llandrillo Menai and Coleg Cambria, two institutions already deeply embedded in the region’s economic fabric.
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai
As one of the largest education providers in North Wales, Grŵp Llandrillo Menai serves tens of thousands of learners across academic, vocational and work-based programmes. Its strong apprenticeship delivery record demonstrates its capacity to respond at scale to employer demand.
With established provision in engineering, construction, digital technologies and energy-related disciplines, the Grŵp is well placed to:
- Develop tailored apprenticeship pathways linked directly to Awel y Môr’s supply chain
- Expand nuclear-related technical training aligned to Wylfa SMR
- Deliver digital and AI-focused programmes supporting the AI Growth Zone
- Provide bilingual and community-rooted education that retains talent locally
Coleg Cambria
Coleg Cambria, one of the UK’s largest colleges, works extensively with employers across engineering, advanced manufacturing, construction, business and digital sectors. Its strong industry partnerships mean curricula can evolve alongside emerging technologies and employer needs.
Cambria’s role is particularly important in:
- Supporting advanced manufacturing and precision engineering skills
- Expanding digital and AI training provision
- Delivering higher-level apprenticeships that bridge FE and university pathways
- Strengthening employer co-design of programmes to ensure job readiness
A Joined-Up Skills Approach
Through collaborations such as the North Wales Tertiary Alliance, linking Grŵp Llandrillo Menai and Coleg Cambria with Bangor and Wrexham universities, there is growing capacity to create seamless progression from entry-level training to degree apprenticeships and postgraduate research.
This joined-up model will hopefully be aligned with what major infrastructure investors look for: a region capable of supplying talent at every level, avoiding duplication and unnecessary competition.
Why Greater Investment is Essential
Despite their central role, apprenticeship systems across Wales face funding pressures and structural limitations, yet the scale of opportunity now emerging in North Wales demands ambition.
Greater investment should focus on:
- Expanding higher and degree apprenticeship places in construction, energy, engineering and AI
- Supporting specialist facilities and simulation labs for nuclear and renewable technologies
- Incentivising employers to co-invest in structured, long-term apprenticeship pipelines
- Ensuring Welsh Government policy aligns skills funding with regional economic strategy
Without this investment, North Wales risks a skills bottleneck that could slow growth or dilute local benefit and see an inward migration of skilled people that outweighs the local social benefit of major schemes.
With investment in the above, the region can become a model for how education and industry partnership drives inclusive prosperity and opportunity.
Vocational education and apprenticeships strengthen communities. They provide accessible routes into high-value careers for young people who may not pursue traditional university study. They also support adults retraining into future industries, and, importantly for the region they help retain Welsh-speaking talent and sustain rural and coastal communities.
When local people secure skilled, well-paid work, the benefits extend deep into communities by increasing household incomes, supporting small businesses, and reinforcing social cohesion and sustaining the foundational economy of the region.
Conclusion: Skills as Key Economic Infrastructure
North Wales’ future will not be defined solely by turbines off its coast, reactors on Anglesey, or servers powering AI systems. It will be defined by whether its people are equipped to design, build, manage, innovate and ultimately succeed within these industries.
FE institutions such as Grŵp Llandrillo Menai and Coleg Cambria, supported by expanded apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships, are not peripheral to this transformation, they are central to it.
Investment in skills is not a secondary policy consideration. It is an economic infrastructure in its own right.
If North Wales matches physical investment with bold, sustained commitment to vocational excellence and higher-level apprenticeships, it can ensure that this opportunity becomes a lasting legacy of prosperity rooted in local talent, inclusive growth and global ambition.
Aled Jones-Griffith has been Chief Executive of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai since 2024, having previously served as Principal of Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor. With more than 15 years’ experience in further education, he has held senior leadership roles across the sector and is committed to strengthening skills, opportunities and bilingual education across North Wales.
Growth, Oportunity and Fairness
Wales’ future economic success lies in the skills of our people, investing in skills is the key to economic growth and to tackle inequalities in Wales. The ColegauCymru Manifesto for the Senedd 2026 election sets out how the Further Education sector can be a part of tackling the challenges that Wales will face over the next decade - the challenges of net zero, delivering sustainable economic growth, rapid technological change, and new demands on public services.
