Ken Skates: Well, not just myself but also my colleagues, primarily Kirsty Williams, the education Minister, would I'm sure take a very keen interest in the proposal. We will look at it very carefully, and I can assure the Member that I'm in regular calls with TVR and with Britishvolt. These are significant opportunities for the Welsh economy, and in particular TVR offers an enormous opportunity for the...
Ken Skates: ...our support for business via the economic resilience fund. We want the people of Islwyn and across Wales to receive the assistance they need, be that work, self-employment or to take up a place in education or training.
Ken Skates: ...announced back on 24 September are unlikely to be sufficient to prevent a large rise in unemployment in the months ahead. Here, in Wales, we've made the pledge to support everybody to find work, education or training or to start their own businesses, and we're supporting that pledge with £90 million of funding. The economic recovery group for the north Wales region is also considering...
Ken Skates: ...of unemployment. And we're ready to use £40 million of economic resilience funding to do just this. I think we'll also need to refashion and reprioritise the apprenticeship programme, further education and university offerings, and the committee notes the action taken to ensure the financial stability of the apprenticeship network, and I very much welcome this. It's enabled training...
Ken Skates: ..., who were looking for employability support. That service has, of course, as a consequence of coronavirus, changed, but it's not the only change that we are making. On 20 May, the Minister for Education outlined a COVID-19 post-16 sector resilience plan to give education providers a clear framework for planning and delivering our employability and skills response. For apprentices, we've...
Ken Skates: ...UK Government to look again at what help it can provide to safeguard businesses critical to our national economic security, such as Tata Steel and Airbus. Earlier today, Llywydd, the Minister for Education outlined a COVID-19 post-16 sector resilience plan to give education providers a clear framework for planning and delivering our employability and skills response. Employability support...
Ken Skates: ...over the next few months to allow us to give certainty to rail passengers in Wales. As well as recommending that local authorities continue to pay a minimum of 75 per cent of the contract value for school and other contracted local passenger services, I've now injected £29 million of grants to help bus operators through the inevitable uncertainty of the next three months. And finally,...
Ken Skates: ..., aviation and tourism sectors. As well as this, workers will be affected in many respects, ranging from employee illness and isolation to looking after children who may not be able to attend school. Areas of the economy where home-working is not possible will face a significant challenge. We welcome the action taken by the Bank of England. However, the scope for monetary policy levers to...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for her question? This primarily relates to responsibilities in the hands of the education Minister, because it concerns further education institutions, of course. However, on the general point of skills, I'd say a number of things. One, that skills shortages will become more acute in certain areas as a result of our exit from the EU; that's certainly what businesses...
Ken Skates: ...leading to many, many new start-ups flourishing sooner than they would do if they were to survive in their own existence. Now, we've provided—. I think the Member is absolutely right that higher education has a critical role in ensuring our long-term prosperity. Further education skills offer incredibly important technical tools, and higher education offers the strategic tools in which...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Caroline Jones for her question? I can assure her that we already are investing heavily in R&D, that we're working with higher education institutions in the region. Swansea University have taken a lead in many respects in regard to industrial energy solutions, and we are absolutely determined to chase after every penny that is on offer through the UK Government's industrial...
Ken Skates: ...is not a considerable ask of the UK Government. In terms of engagement with the North Wales Economic Ambition Board on our vision, we have presented to and engaged with council leaders, higher education leaders, further education leaders and representatives of business organisations. Much of the work stems from the recommendations of Growth Track 360, the report that provided the Welsh...
Ken Skates: ...approach and moving away from the previous, national, sector-led strategies. This is a fundamental aspect of the economic action plan. RSPs are central to our new strategic planning system for education and skills delivery across post-16 education. I'm pleased that their annual recommendations for change have resulted in a more responsive and reactive skills system in Wales, as colleges...
Ken Skates: ...to a signalling problem, which, of course, is managed by Network Rail. The problem was compounded by the difficulty in sourcing replacement buses, because local buses were at that time booked for school transport. There was also a further disruption later that evening when a bus hit a railway bridge, and then Network Rail, rightly so, had to carry out safety inspections to make sure that...
Ken Skates: We have a number of initiatives in place to support the development of the well-paid sectors in Wales , including Swansea. This includes increasing our funding to Higher Education Funding Council for Wales for expensive subjects in 2019-20 to support delivery of higher cost subjects, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, IT and computing.
Ken Skates: ...at a local level is absolutely essential to really make a difference for individuals in their day-to-day lives. And action at a local level can include the sort of advice that Careers Wales and schools themselves are able to offer young learners. Dai Lloyd has raised principally three important points. One: 'Action on disability', the framework and the plan, with specific regard to people...
Ken Skates: ...Isherwood would agree that we all wish to ensure that all disabled people have the same freedom and dignity and choice and control as everybody else in society, whether it be at home, in work, in education or in the community. Mark Isherwood has raised the question of how we can support business and promote responsible employment practices across the business community more. I'd like to...
Ken Skates: ...been done has been the inspiration for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Through the 406 Big Ideas role models across Wales, over 219,000 young people across all of our schools, colleges and universities have been engaged to think about how they could start their own business or become a successful entrepreneur. It’s what has helped 57 per cent—57 per...
Ken Skates: .... This includes challenging targets during construction of sections 5 and 6 for training and employment, work packages for local businesses, spend with Welsh companies and engagement with local schools.
Ken Skates: ...a number of challenges. It was as a result of that due diligence that we were able to avoid putting more than £300 million of taxpayers' money, £300 million of investment that could go into schools, hospitals and other services, at risk. So, I can assure the Member that, as far as my department is concerned, as far as the Welsh Government is concerned, rigorous due diligence of all...
