Julie James: Carwyn Jones.
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I also add my congratulations to you on your new role, in an effort to curry some favour? [Laughter.] I would like to take this opportunity to inform members about the Government’s plans regarding the recruitment of apprentices over the coming months. As my statement today will make clear, we are taking action quickly to deliver on our pledge for...
Julie James: Thank you for those questions. I’ll start with the last one: yes, about 25 per cent of the present programme is funded by European funds and I think it’s fair to say that without those funds the apprenticeship programme would not be the success it is today. We’ve also benefited from membership of various CVET organisations across Europe and indeed I have attended a conference in order...
Julie James: Yes, I’m very happy to agree with the Member for Merthyr Tydfil that that scheme is very good. I’m familiar with it. I visited the college myself in the previous Assembly to have a look at some of the good schemes there. What is clear as well is that we have a number of employers who are very persuaded of the need for good-quality professional training, both for apprenticeships and for...
Julie James: Thank you for those questions. On that last one, I’m not going to agree to review the sustainability formula because we think it works extremely well and is one of the reasons that the programme has been so successful. However, the Member has correctly identified—and I remember the letter very well—that occasionally we have decisions that are not in line with the formula and, on review...
Julie James: We haven’t got that, yet. Those of us who were present in the previous Assembly will know that we took a legislative consent motion through to allow HMRC to collect data in Wales and to data share it with us. At the moment, HMRC are the only people in possession of those data and we’re in negotiation with them around the costs of releasing those data to us. However, we do know, in...
Julie James: I do entirely agree that the loss of European structural and social funding to the apprenticeship programme would be a grievous blow to Wales, but I’d like to take it a bit further than just the money. As I said in my previous answer to Llyr, actually, we’ve benefitted hugely from sharing good practice across Europe and from being able to be part of the European family in terms of...
Julie James: So, the Member will have heard in my statement that what I talked about is encouraging apprenticeship provision in skill-shortage areas in Wales, as identified through the regional skills partnerships, both for the three regions of Wales where we have the partnerships and for Wales as a whole. The Member may have heard my replies to other Members about our sorrow that the UKCES survey has...
Julie James: Thank you, Acting Deputy Presiding Officer; how nice to see you in the chair. We’ve seen significant improvements in the employment rate in Wales over the last Assembly term. Between February and April 2016, the employment rate was close to a record high figure at 71.9 per cent, and is well above the rate of 65 to 67 per cent experienced in the mid to late 1990s and the early years of the...
Julie James: Thank you for that series of questions. In my usual format, I’m going to answer the last one first and work backwards, just that’s because how my brain works. In terms of the overall funding programme, yes, we are going to assume, because we’ve been told on many occasions, that the funding shortfall that falls to Wales as a result of the Brexit agenda will be made up by the UK...
Julie James: Well, we have a complex system of contract arrangements in place to provide work-based learning via a system of main contracts and then subcontracts; and actually, it’s quite a complex picture. Sometimes the further education colleges are subcontractors to the main contractor and vice versa. What I am able to confirm to the Member is that we do prioritise very much the needs of...
Julie James: Thank you very much for that series of questions. I think the issue around employer confidence is an interesting one. We had an extensive consultation over the summer—last summer—with employers on our apprenticeships programmes, which was completely upended by the announcements at UK level of the apprenticeship levy, which cut straight across that. Members who were here in the fourth...
Julie James: Thank you very much for those questions. I’d just like to say that I’m working very closely with my colleagues, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language, in ensuring that the transition stages between all areas of education are as seamless as possible and that we pick up individual learner needs at those times so that we correctly...
Julie James: Superfast Cymru has provided access to superfast fibre broadband to 143,316 premises across north east Wales.
Julie James: Diolch, Lywydd. Today, I want to provide you with an update on the progress of Superfast Cymru, together with our emerging work to address the final few per cent of premises not part of the project or commercial roll-outs and a refreshed approach to communications and marketing. I’m sure that I do not need to impress on Members the growing importance of connectivity to homes and businesses....
Julie James: Thank you very much for those points. In terms of the roll-out and the rurality issue, the point about this programme is it is almost entirely based in rural areas, or non-metropolitan areas, because it’s a market intervention. So, the point about it is, we’re only allowed to go where the market isn’t going to go. So, it’s a truism, I’m afraid, that the market only goes to...
Julie James: Thank you for that series of questions and comments, Russell George. A day is not complete in my ministerial office without a letter from you on Superfast Cymru; so, I very much appreciate your interest on behalf of your constituents in this matter. I’ll try and get through all of them. The contractual obligations point: we’re not relying on clawback as a result of failure of BT to get...
Julie James: Okay, well, thank you for that, and thank you very much for your kind remarks. We’re very proud of the fact that we've got Wales to be one of the leaders in digital connectivity right across Europe, and it's a matter of some concern to us that we get people to take up the benefits of it now that we've spent the money in rolling it out. In terms of business take-up, one of the reasons that...
Julie James: So, on your first point, of course it’s not just rural, it’s just that most areas where there’s no commercial roll-out are rural. But you correctly identified a place in your own constituency that didn’t have commercial, although, weirdly, there’s a triangle in the middle of Swansea that didn’t have it either. But it’s just a sort of generality that, for the most part, it’s...
Julie James: I thank the Member for those important questions. We had a long meeting very recently to discuss some of these issues. I think it’s important not to conflate two separate issues. One is the ‘promise’, if you like, that BT used to have on their website that you might be in scope in the next three months. People were rightly very cheesed off when the three months went past and they...
