Vaughan Gething: ...just the opportunities to generate low-carbon power, but the jobs that should come from that as well. So, we'll build on that work, and the work that we have already set out with further and higher education providers. One of the things that businesses are already doing is looking at where they think there are gaps and opportunities and the skills base of where they are, as well as a...
Vaughan Gething: Well, actually, I do maintain an interest, and I'm thinking about some of my own past, when it comes to wool. My mother used to knit our jumpers for going to school and my father was a rural vet, so I spent quite a long time seeing my father tend to sheep; it was fun, at the time, seeing my father going through what was then a sheep-dipping process as well. So, I do understand a little bit...
Vaughan Gething: ...haven't been listened to in the design of the funds, forcing them to compete with each other, not to work collaboratively together. They haven't listened to trade unions, further or higher education. If you think about what universities are saying, the vice-chancellor of Swansea University has been very clear that hundreds of high-quality jobs will not be in Wales if there is not an...
Vaughan Gething: ..., and we can take account of that as we're moving forward. On how we engage young people, there's a range of different ways in which we do that. There's different survey work that we do through schools. There's also work we're doing with the young person's guarantee itself, directly listening to people taking part in it. Actually, that has led to some of the changes we've made in Jobs...
Vaughan Gething: ..., we are much better than that. Our challenge is, and it's partly about budget, it's also, though, about the capacity to give people, I think, really good work experience during their time in school. But it's also, in a number of our growth areas, the opportunity to keep people's minds open to the future, and it really does come back to lots of things that happen in the curriculum, because...
Vaughan Gething: ...and investment of skills in the future. Our engagement with stakeholders has suggested that there is a level of confusion and a lack of understanding amongst some businesses, employees and school leavers about what is meant by green or net-zero jobs and the skills required. We need to build a shared understanding of net-zero skills across Wales. We have, to date, interpreted net-zero...
Vaughan Gething: .... But the problem is that choices that have been made at a UK level take that money out of the sector, and the deliberate design of the shared prosperity fund in particular was to exclude higher education from that. And if we were having this debate in England, they'd have exactly the same complaints about how they've been carved out of it, and it's a real problem; it's a real and...
Vaughan Gething: ...university sector to be better at gaining access to UK funding competition as well. Now there's a real imperative to do so, and that's part of the conversation we've had. But also, for the higher education sector—further education has a role in innovation as well; I'm not saying it doesn't, but the question was on higher education—part of it is their collective understanding of where...
Vaughan Gething: ..., and we've been working with a range of people in doing that in the run-up to the launch of this strategy as well. That includes businesses being involved in that, it includes higher and further education, and it includes a range of people already engaged. There's also an unfinished piece of work in the UK Government and there's a review that Sir Paul Nurse has been doing—that will have...
Vaughan Gething: ...work that is translational. But we can only succeed if all the innovation stakeholders in Wales work together in the collaborative way that we set out in the strategy. Our four main themes of education, economy, health and well-being, climate and nature will allow us to explore cutting-edge opportunities; to enable us to compete more effectively for UK and international funding and...
Vaughan Gething: Diolch, Llywydd. I welcome this opportunity to update Members on 'Wales innovates', our new innovation strategy, which has been co-developed with the Ministers for health and social services, education and Welsh Language and, of course, climate change. It was officially launched yesterday. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge and thank the Plaid Cymru designated Members and their leader in the...
Vaughan Gething: ..., but the UK Government are making alternative choices. The Member may not like hearing it, but it's the truth of the matter, and, if you talked with and listened to what businesses, the higher education sector and others are saying, they all recognise that too.
Vaughan Gething: ...projects—we can point to the work we're doing with Thales, for example, but that isn't just founded in Blaenau—but what difference will it make more broadly. So, the work that my colleague the education Minister has seen there about 5G classrooms, and the ability it has to have a much wider, broader and deeper impact. On your point about productivity, you're right, of course. Some of...
Vaughan Gething: ...in how we are able to close the circle. I have actually had further conversations in the last week about the response from a variety of stakeholders, both providers of skills acquisition, further education and others, but also businesses—and business awareness—themselves, and it varies in different sectors. There's a challenge here about raising awareness of the journey to net zero,...
Vaughan Gething: ...2 of the levelling up fund, despite submitting bids at the start of August last year. The UK Government's approach has placed local government in an appalling position. Other sectors, like higher education, further education and the third sector, have been excluded, whilst funds are being re-directed away from the poorest areas of our country at the worst possible time. All of this would...
Vaughan Gething: ...people will have about the safe operation of facilities like this, as well as seeing the potential for investment. I'm very proud that we're continuing to make progress on the north Wales medical school. I see the former Minister for north Wales on the screen in front of me—it was part of the conversation we had in the last Government, and we're looking to carry on and deliver within...
Vaughan Gething: ...budgets. It all depends on not just the overall settlement the Welsh Government gets but the priorities we set within it. In our draft budget, we've set out health and local government, including education within that, as our big priorities, and that has consequences for the way we allocate the budget not just to those departments, but to all others as well. I recognise the point you're...
Vaughan Gething: ...'. This will be a major Wales and UK-wide strategic initiative. It will develop a sustainable supply of medical radioisotopes for diagnostics and treatments. Together with the north Wales medical school development, it will help to stimulate the wider north Wales economy. This represents a major collaborative development between the department for health and social sciences and the economy...
Vaughan Gething: So, the education Minister has already announced an increase in QR funding previously. When it comes to consequentials from this announcement, we are in active conversation with the UK Government to finalise the amount and the usage of that. There is always a challenge—and I understand why it's made—when there is an announcement made for a particular sector within England for exactly the...
Vaughan Gething: .... That includes the training at the outset of someone's career, at various points in their career, and, indeed, personal learning accounts. I've been very pleased to work with the Minister for Education in particular, to look at maintaining the progress we've made on personal learning accounts, and, indeed, the skills investment we're looking to make not just across sectors, but, broadly...
