£5m for new NSA building

Training in technical aspects of theatre and live music production has received a boost with the announcement of £5m in funding from the Learning and Skills Council for a new building for the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills in Thurrock. As well as providing a base for training, which will eventually cover all the creative and cultural industries, the building should create 1,000 jobs, according to Tom Bewick, the Group Chief Executive of Creative and Cultural Skills. He added that the building is “shovel ready” and would be completed by 2011. The plan has generated a broad welcome across the area. Angela Smith, MP for Basildon, said it would “help to support ‘recession busting’ initiatives in the Thames Gateway region”, while Thurrock MP Andrew MacKinlay said the Academy is “of critical and strategic importance to both the Thames Gateway region and the UK economy as a whole”. Kevin Brennan, the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs, said the project was going ahead thanks to partnership working between a number of agencies including the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the DCMS.