Investing in the future of our creative sector

As a College which is passionate about ensuring our students have the best possible outcomes, we have worked hard over the past few years to ensure the courses we offer mirror the opportunities available in our local economies.

One of the fastest growing sectors in Thanet over the past few years has been the creative one. It has seen wide scale growth as cash has poured into regenerating Margate, first with the Turner Contemporary and then with Margate’s Old Town. The sector has also grown more broadly across Kent, providing almost 14,000 high quality jobs for those with the right skills.

This week East Kent College officially launched its Michael Wright Centre for the Creative Industries. The entire building is dedicated to ensuring that our students who want to break into this competitive sector have the finest facilities available to them. Ensuring they already have experience of working with industry standard equipment is of real importance if they are going to be able to move from our College straight into this exciting sector.
It was also a wonderful opportunity for me to meet up with the former Chair of our Governing body, and the man who the building was named after, Professor Michael Wright CBE DL.

L-R Graham Razey, Lucy McLeod, and Michael Wright

Michael was the man at the helm of East Kent College when I joined, so effectively became my boss and line manager. He became a real mentor to me, showing me the value of taking control and standing behind my decisions. I was proud to see our new building bear his name, as a legacy of his time working with East Kent College and promoting the cause of further education. It was his vision which saw the creative sector as a key area to expand into, in order to ensure the best opportunities for the young people who study with us.

When the building was conceived by Michael and other senior members of the College, the hope was that it would become a centre of excellence for the creative industries, with the highest specification equipment. That dream has been realised, with state-of-the-art technology embedded throughout the building, ensuring students are able to get the best opportunity to learn, create and build their skills. A large auditorium, digital media suite with the latest in computing technology, and large music performance spaces all mean staff and students are given the best opportunities to teach and learn.

Michael Wright sees students using the Mac Lab

These features also mean that the building is able to serve as a venue for community use, with the Principal of our Broadstairs Campus, Lucy McLeod, highlighting this as being one of the key uses for the auditorium. It has already held a talk about the history of the E-Type Jaguar, with a leading expert discussing the history of the company, and there are plans afoot to create a community choral society as well.

It’s a building which ticks all of the boxes, with our local economy, community and education all playing their part in its creation.