Wales Annual Lecture – Professor Tom Crick MBE

Delivering a Digital Wales: Skills, Infrastructure and the Future Economy

We have seen significant policy initiatives over the past 10 years which pitch Wales as a thriving digital nation: from substantial national infrastructure investments, mechanisms to stimulate innovation and attract high-value industry, through to major education and skills reforms. With around a year until the next National Assembly for Wales elections, the success or failure of these various initiatives and investments will be increasingly scrutinised in public and in the media, providing the foundation for future manifesto pledges and government policy.

This challenging political, policy and economic context is clear, both in the short-term as well as the longer-term; so what does this mean for the future economy of Wales – and how can we develop a digitally confident and capable citizenry to support a number of possible futures?

In this year’s Digital Leaders Wales Annual Lecture, Professor Tom Crick MBE of Swansea University, will reflect on the wider digital policy context, framing the major challenges and opportunities for Wales within the UK, Europe, and globally. Through the lens of recent work, including the development of the new Curriculum for Wales, the recent Review of Digital Innovation and the Future of Work, and the first year of work from the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, Professor Crick will outline the potential for positioning Wales as a national-scale, citizen-centred, open technology and policy testbed, leveraging diverse digital, data and computational assets across the public and private sector.

Biography

Professor Tom Crick MBE is Professor of Digital Education & Policy at Swansea University; his academic interests sit at the research/policy interface, cutting across education and skills, digital/data infrastructure and the wider digital economy. He has been heavily involved in curriculum reform in Wales, chairing the review of the ICT curriculum in 2013, and has recently chaired the development of the Science & Technology area in the new Curriculum for Wales. He is an inaugural Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, and a non-executive director of Swansea Bay University Health Board and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

Registration for this event is vital as there are limited places.